Chapter 42
Chapter 40 of House, Garden, and Field by L.C. Meal. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. House Spiders To give a plain account of the mode of life of any spider is no easy task. None of our native species are of large size,
and the details of structure, such as the jaws, the eyes, or the spinnerets, require the use of the microscope. Moreover, spiders, especially such as make webs, generally work by night. Those which do not remain motionless by day are often hidden in corners where observation is difficult. Hence, there are no animals equally common and equally interesting about which the untrained naturalist knows so little.
It may be thought that these are good reasons for saying nothing about spiders in a book which is not meant for learned students. But the spiders force themselves on our attention. Only a very incurious person can be satisfied to remain quite ignorant of the house spider, or the garden spider, or the diving spider, and whatever the difficulties, we must face them, trusting that even a beginner, without microscope or skill in dissection,
may be able to learn some little about these most ingenious artificers. The house spider usually makes an almost horizontal web in an angle between two walls. It prefers a cellar or outhouse to an inhabited room, not only because it loves peace, but because it thrives best in a damp situation. Spiders in general are fond of moisture,
and their bodies shrink when they cannot obtain a due supply. Several distinct kinds of spiders enter houses for shelter and food. Two of these are regular inmates and might be called the housemaid spiders. The larger of the two, Tegeneria domestica, may be over half an inch long, not counting the legs.
So commonly named in English books, the true T. domestica does not occur in Britain. Our commonest Tegeneria is T. guioni, guere. Along the midline of its abdomen runs a brown stripe, and on either side of this is a row of pale dots on a dark ground.
The second species, T. civilis, is a little smaller. Along the middle line of the abdomen is a row of black spots, and outside these the skin is speckled with black. Both of these spiders spin similar webs and their habits are in all respects much alike.
A third species, Teatrica, is distinguished by its much darker color. Species of the spiders named Siniflo, though regularly inhabiting crevices among rocks and other outdoor retreats, are often met with in houses. They are nearly as big as the Tegenerias,
but the upper surface of the abdomen is ornamented with a more intricate symmetrical pattern of light and dark brown, and the legs are usually mottled. Less commonly found than any of the above species are the small spiders named linifia,
which sometimes enter houses and make delicate webs to the underside of which they cling. The web of a house spider is secured by many threads passing in different directions to fixed points so that it can resist a pull from any quarter.
The free border is strengthened by a thread of extra strength. The web itself is composed of multitudes of threads crossing in different directions without much arrangement. Well-fed house spiders continually add fresh threads to the original web until it becomes firm and close, almost like tissue paper. Though artless in comparison with the geometrical snare of the garden spider, the web of the house spider is well adapted to secure a fly or other winged insect buzzing about in a dark corner and unsuspicious of an enemy.
Concealed by the web and lying usually in the angle between the walls is the retreat in which the spider lurks while waiting for its prey. It forms a short tube, secured by many threads both to the web and to the wall, and open at both ends. When threatened, the spider can leave its retreat by the further opening, and often has a favorite crevice in which to hide itself. The tube is both the home and the nest of the spider. Into this she drags her prey, and here she rears her young.
In June or July, but occasionally much earlier in the year, the female spider weaves one or more cocoons of fine white silk nearly an inch across. Each cocoon is formed of two layers, the upper arched upwards and the lower downwards. Between the two, she places about a hundred yellow eggs. The young spiders, when they appear, may often be seen crowded together in one part of the cocoon, while the empty shells from which they have escaped lie all around. The silk of which the web is composed is secreted by innumerable glands
and paid out from spinners, which project slightly from the hinder end of the body. In the house spider, there are three pairs of spinners, which are joined prominences resembling stunted legs and movable in all directions. While spinning, the spider rubs the tips of the spinners together and the thread issues from between them.
When the tip of one of the spinners is examined by the microscope, a great number of spinnerets are seen, each mounted upon an enlarged base and perforated by a fine canal. A separate thread issues from each spinneret, but all are blended into a single cord while still fluid by the movements of the spinners. It is only when she is attaching her thread to its support that the spider allows the finest threads to come off separately.
She spreads these over the supporting surface in order to get a firm attachment by means of a multitude of distinct fibers. The hind legs are often employed to guide the thread as it is paid out. In certain spiders, different spinners secrete different kinds of silk, but no such distinction has been remarked in the case of the house spider. Both male and female house spiders spin webs and feed upon the insects captured thereby, but only the females construct nests.
Male spiders are of lighter build, with relatively long legs, and are more active and more inclined to roam during the breeding season than the females. In spiders, generally the colors of the male are darker and the spots less defined than in the female. The spiders called cineflo, which are not uncommon in houses, have a comb of longish hairs on the last joint but one of each hind leg. The spinning apparatus is more complex than in any other spider, new and peculiar
perforated plates being added to the three pairs of spinners. From these plates, the comb, by a rapid vibratory movement draws out innumerable threads at once. The curled silk thus produced is used to strengthen the web and also to make the egg cocoon. House spiders now and then eat parts of their own webs, and it is supposed that they do so when pressed by hunger. Sometimes, however, a spider will merely chew its own web without swallowing any part of it. End of chapter 40.
