. American spiders and their spinning work. A natural history of the orbweaving spiders of the United States, with special regard to their industry and habits. Spiders. ENEMIES AND THEIR INFLUENCE. 379 to the one and inimical to the other, may be seen in tlie number of ara- neads in that or the succeeding year. This is also true of the abundance or lack of a natural food supply. For example, the boat houses, fences, and outbuildings at Atlantic City fairly swarm with Epeiroids, especially Sclop- etaria and Strix. This abundance is probably caused by tlie presence of greenhead Hies with which t
. American spiders and their spinning work. A natural history of the orbweaving spiders of the United States, with special regard to their industry and habits. Spiders. ENEMIES AND THEIR INFLUENCE. 379 to the one and inimical to the other, may be seen in tlie number of ara- neads in that or the succeeding year. This is also true of the abundance or lack of a natural food supply. For example, the boat houses, fences, and outbuildings at Atlantic City fairly swarm with Epeiroids, especially Sclop- etaria and Strix. This abundance is probably caused by tlie presence of greenhead Hies with which the district is infested and which, affording an excess of food for the adult and partly grown spiders, relieves them from the necessity of preying upon their own species, which thus increase enormously as compared with sections a little distant. But with and such like exceptions, and notwithstanding all other variations, the distribution of a given orbwcaving species in a given sec- tion will be found surprisingly uniform from year to year. The balance of hostile and unfriendly influences is held well poised by Nature's even hand. The enemies of spiders may be divided generally into those which assail the animal itself and those which affect its eggs. Among the enemies of spi- ders, as of all other creatures, may be placed the changes of the sea- sons. The araneads' power to endure cold is great, but an unusually cold and moist winter will destroy many. Heavy rains prove fa- tal, especially to the young, and to females great with _ i_ i.' J ii c 1- Fic. 321. A moulting lizard eating a spider. eggs—beatmg down the foliage in which they are ensconced, or sweeping the creatures themselves to the ground. The extreme tension of the abdominal sac under the distended ovaries makes fatal a shock that otherwise would work little harm. It is well known that toads and lizards take kindl}' to a spider diet. In southern Florida I once found a young lizard, while in the act of . sh
Size: 1682px × 1485px
Photo credit: © Central Historic Books / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectspiders, bookyear1889
