. 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. 399 unfrequently the eggs are destroyed by vegetable mold. According to the observations of Ilomburg, house spiders in the kingdom of Naples are sub- ject to a malady which makes them appear hideous. Their body Mold, becomes covered over with scales, bristling one above the other, Flies .p. , ' among which numbers of a species of mites are discovered. When the spider walks, it .shakes itself and thr
. 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. 399 unfrequently the eggs are destroyed by vegetable mold. According to the observations of Ilomburg, house spiders in the kingdom of Naples are sub- ject to a malady which makes them appear hideous. Their body Mold, becomes covered over with scales, bristling one above the other, Flies .p. , ' among which numbers of a species of mites are discovered. When the spider walks, it .shakes itself and throws off part of the scales and some of the parasites.' One day I was dissecting a cocoon of Epeira sclopetaria, and had just turned back the white sheeting of the interior sac, thus quite exposing the eggs, when a house fly lit upon the mass, and instantly thrust her proboscis into and sucked out the contents of an egg. I j^ermitted the insect to continue its feast long enough to show that the innumerable com- pany of common flies only require an opportunity to wholly cut off and exterminate their hereditary foes at the very fountain head of life. Spiders themselves enjoy a meal of spiders' eggs; for example, Staveley speaks of two species of Clubiona feeding upon the eggs of other species.'^ Birds have already been alluded to, in the chapter on Aeronautic Habits, as utilizing spider cocoonery in the construction of their nests. Among those addicted to this habit are the pewit,* the -}^ . wren,* and the vireo. I have several specimens Einemies. 'â of nests made by a species of the last named bird^ probably Vireo noveborocensis, collected in Fairmouut Park, -ftSI in all of which cobwebs have been used more or less freely. (Fig. 339.) I am told that this is habitual with that bird. The texture of the spinningwork shows, evidently, that it had been plucked from cocoons; and if this were done before abandonment by the brood, at least before hatch- -<S ing, the destruction of th
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectspiders, bookyear1889
