Everyland
is an interesting magazine, written as a missionary publication for boys and
girls, it actually contains some interesting stories from all over the world.
This
story is very similar to Cobs and
Cobwebs published in June 1899 Popular
Science magazine. Some of the
graphics may be the same, also.
Some Funny Cobwebs
By A. Hyatt Verrill
From Everyland magazine and the
column ‘Everyland Nature Club’, Dec. 1916. Digitized by Doug Frizzle Jan. 2012.
OF course you have all seen
cobwebs and every reader of Everyland knows
they are built by spiders, but did
you ever wonder how the spiders made
their webs or have you ever noticed
how many different kinds of webs there
are?
If you should examine a
spider under a magnifying glass or a microscope, you would find a number of
little projections on the under side
of its body. These are the
"spinnerets" with which the
spider spins its web, and a very remarkable process it is. Within the spider's body the
silk is in the form of a liquid and
each of the tiny spinnerets is a
tube through which the liquid silk
flows, and just as soon as it reaches the
air it hardens and the several
streams from the spinnerets run together to form a single thread of finest silk. If the spider wishes a very fine thread he places his
spinnerets close together, while, if
he wishes a thick thread, or a broad band of silk, he spreads his spinnerets
wide apart.
Still more wonderful is the fact that the
spider can spin hard, dry silk or soft, sticky silk at will and each size of
thread and each kind of silk is used for some special purpose. The dry, hard threads
are always used when a spider wishes to drop from one place to another, for making silk bridges and for making the first part or framework of the webs. The elastic, sticky threads are used for
catching the spider's prey and for
wrapping around and around the fly
or other insect after it is
captured.
You may often find spiders'
webs with both kinds of silk used in them,
for spiders plan and build their
webs very carefully and use the sort
of silk best suited to every purpose, and each kind of spider always builds the same sort of a web. Thus, the
big wheellike, nets which you find among bushes and trees, are built by certain
kinds of spiders, and the flat
carpet-like webs which glisten like silver in the
grass, are made by very different kinds of spiders, and as there are many thousands of species of spiders and
every one builds a different sort of web, you can understand what a great
variety of webs there are, and
naturalists who study spiders can tell just what kind of a spider built a certain
web by looking at it.
Some of these webs are really very wonderful, but the most wonderful of the
common webs is one built by a little spider that lives among evergreen trees,
and if you look carefully you can usually find these
webs stretched between the twigs. At
first sight you will think them very
simple and not at all interesting, as they
are just four or five straight threads in the
form of a triangle crossed by some coarser threads and fastened by a single
thread at one end. But if you watch carefully you will soon learn what a very
clever and ingenious sort of a spider built the
web and how remarkable it is.
When the
little spider is hungry,— and spiders are always hungry,—he stations himself
upon the single thread and gathers up the
slack between his feet and draws the
whole web very tight. Presently along comes a buzzing fly and bumps into the net, and instantly, the
spider releases the loose silk and the net springs forward and snares the fly.
Again and again, the spider draws up the
web and snaps it back until his prey is hopelessly entangled and the little lasso-thrower can devour the fly at leisure.
Strange as it seems that a
spider should capture his prey with a lasso, it is even funnier to think of
spiders building balloons and flying, but nevertheless,
spiders do build balloons and travel for hundreds of miles through the air.
When a spider aeronaut wishes
to fly he climbs to the highest spot
he can find, such as a fence post, a bush, or even a tall blade of grass, and
holding securely with his front feet, he raises his body in the air and spins out yard after yard of loose
thread. When enough silk has been spun to lift the
spider's weight, he releases his hold on the
post or bush and goes sailing off.
Perhaps you may not think
this simple breeze-borne silk should be called a balloon, but the spider aeronaut can regulate his speed, or the distance he travels far better than can human
balloonists. If the wind increases,
he merely gathers in some loose
thread, while, if the wind falls, he
spins out more, and if he wishes to ascend or to land he gathers in or spins out thread to suit his needs.
These flying spiders are not
one special kind, but are the young
of many common spiders, and if you look on fences and bushes on sunny autumn
days you will often find dozens of the
threads streaming up into the air
from little spiders who are getting ready for a flight.
Sometimes these spider balloonists travel long distances, and they have been seen floating safely through the air hundreds of miles out at sea.
Most of our spiders are very
small, which is very fortunate for us, for spiders are among the most ferocious and bloodthirsty of creatures.
In the
tropics they grow to quite large
size, and the big hairy tarantulas
and mygales are so strong and powerful that they
feed upon birds, pouncing on them
and piercing them with their great pointed jaws. If such spiders were as
large as wolves, we can imagine what enemies they
would be to human beings!
Of all interesting spiders'
nests, perhaps the most interesting
is the one built by a cousin of the big tarantulas and which is known as the trap-door spider. These fellows live in sandy
places in the Western
United States and make a burrow in the
ground which they line with silk.
Then at the top they build a close-fitting door which is covered
with earth, so that when it is shut you would never guess it was there. One kind of trap-door spider is not satisfied
with a single door to his home, but in addition, burrows one or more side
tunnels, each of which is fitted with a trapdoor where it opens into the main hole. When an enemy pursues this spider he
darts into his hole and closes the
door after him, holding it tightly closed with his feet, which grasp little
silken handles made for the purpose.
Then, if his enemy succeeds in forcing the
door, the spider hurries into a side
room and closes that door behind him and holds it shut. If his enemy still
tries to force a way into this new retreat, the
spider hurries to the end of the chamber, digs rapidly through the thin layer of earth above, and is some distance
away while his pursuer is still hunting about in the
dark hole from which the spider has
fled.
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