The Trap-door Spiders are allied, but smaller, perhaps averaging about an inch in length. They construct a silken gallery in the ground, with a round door, which they shut behind them when they enter. There is only one species in England, which does not form a trap-door, but a silken tube. If any insect settles on it, the spider clutches it from within, tears a hole in the tube, drags its prey inside, and then repairs the rent.
Different spiders have many curious methods of capturing their insect-prey. Some catch insects by running after them, and others by leaping on them, while those which spin webs are also very dissimilar in their habits and in their abodes. The brown House-spiders spin webs in any room left undisturbed long enough to allow them to construct them. On the other hand, the Orb-spinners, or Garden-spiders, construct elaborate webs out of doors. One of the most beautiful of these is the Diadem-spider, which is nearly an inch long, and of a green or reddish colour, with a white cross bordered with black on the back. The web is very regularly constructed, the principal threads radiating in all directions from a common centre, where the spider generally sits in fine weather, ready to rush out upon any insect which may become entangled in the web.
The Gossamer-spiders spin light webs, which are easily carried up into the air, and upon which the spiders are borne from one place to another. Sometimes on an autumn morning the air may be seen to be full of these floating webs, which also cover the grass and bushes where they have settled. The Water-spiders, again, construct a habitation of water-tight silk under water, like a diving-bell, and inflate it by carrying down bubbles of air from the surface, entangled in the hairs of the body.
The nesting-habits of many spiders are very curious. The eggs are usually laid in a silken case, and the Running-spiders may often be seen with the egg-cases attached to the end of the body, as in the female cockroach.
The males of many spiders are much smaller than the females, and are very liable to be devoured by their partners.
Photo by B. H. Bentley] [Sheffield.
GARDEN-SPIDER IN WEB.
A beautiful example of the structure of the web.
Among the most curious of the group are the Spiny Spiders, strange, horny, semicircular creatures, studded with strong spines. They are allied to the Garden-spiders, but confined to the tropics.