Spiders In The Garden

 No one who has ever watched a garden spider at work on its "woven wheel" can help but admire the wonderful skill exhibited in its construction and the manner in which it is accomplished. The spinning organs or spinnerets, consisting of little tubes leading from glands in the abdomen of the spider, secrete the viscous fluid that hardens into silk on exposure to the air. Measuring carefully by its ruler—one of its own legs—each spoke, or radius, and each circular mesh of silk which interlaces them is placed with accuracy and dispatch, the whole forming a radiating framework of tough, silken threads, with the net itself between them, strong and elastic. An extra zigzag band of whitish silk is provided at the centre for stabilisation.

These webs, built to resist the wind and weather and retain the struggling captives that "blunder in," often measure two feet in diameter. They are usually made upon herbaceous growth along country roadsides, and in the marshes and upon the grasses and weeds in the meadows and open places. In these habitats, where insects are busy, the spiders reap a rich harvest. During the late summer and autumn, the grasshoppers form a great portion of the garden spiders' diet. The "hopper" happens to land in the web, and the spider rushes out from its station to the point at which the struggling captive is vibrating the web. If the grasshopper is large enough to tear the net it is rolled over and over by the spider, with deft movement of its legs, and wound and bound with more silk until its struggles have ceased.

When threatened by dangers, or disturbed during its periods of watchful waiting, the spider quickly drops to the ground and feigns death. It spins a thread of silk as it drops and when the danger is over it returns to the web by means of this thread. Adult females of the garden spider may grow to measure over an inch in length, and are beautifully marked with spots and bands of black and bright orange yellow, while the males—about one-fourth as large—cut poor figures beside their large and irascible better halves, who, not infrequently, eat them.

Garden spiders mature late in the summer and during the autumn we find the evidence of maternal instincts, the devoted care with which the wearing mothers make and fill their pear-shaped egg-sac. The mother spider dies soon after this labor is performed. The eggs hatch soon after they are placed in their winter quarters, and the young spiders spend the cold months snugly housed in their silken bag, waiting for the magic touch of spring, which carries the message of the awakening world.