Spiders when small often use their spinnerets much as the witches of old were supposed to use a broom-stick—that is to say, as a means of travelling through the air. Turning the end of the body upwards they force out a few threads, which, caught by the breeze, are blown away, and so a number of long threads are rapidly drawn out, sufficiently long at last to carry the spider itself with them. When too heavy to fly, they sometimes send a thread adrift and wait until it catches in some projecting bough; this done, they make fast the end to the bough or leaf on which they may be resting, and climb along this tight-rope to build a new home.
Fig. 2.—Silk Threads of Spider's Web, highly magnified.
The floating threads formed by broods of small spiders are sometimes very numerous, and cover everything: they are especially noticeable in hedges, and are one of the causes of what is called in the country 'Gossamer.'
W. P. Pycraft, F.Z.S., A.L.S.
AFLOAT ON THE DOGGER BANK.
A Story of Adventure on the North Sea and in China.