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Riddle of the St. Andrew's Cross Queen of Spinners |
The Wolf spiderWolf spiders (Lycosa), swiftly-running ground-dwellers, abound in both bush and garden. Grass lawns are especially favored for their nesting and hunting activities. These spiders vary considerably in size according to the species concerned, and some are quite large. There are many species, but all are clad in rather dull shades of brown and grey, with a herring-bone design in paler tints along the back of the hind-body or abdomen. The fore-body (cephalothorax) is marked with a pat-tern of radiating lines, rather reminiscent of a Union Jack. Our commonest. and most widely distributed species is Lycosa godeffroyi, in which the lower surface of the abdomen is coal-black. The wolf spiders excavate burrows in the soil to a depth of a foot or more. The entrance may be left open to the sky and merely lined with a few silken strands; sometimes, however, an elaborate wall-like structure of coiled grass-stems, bound together with strands of silk, may be erected about the aperture. A few species construct true. trapdoorsclose-fitting, disc-like lids, loose and unhinged, which can be opened and closed at will; closed when the householder is within, open and lying loosely upon the surface when she takes the air. In bad weather, the burrow may be closed with a simple sheet of closely woven silk spun across the opening, which to a large degree prevents rain from seeping down into the nest beneath. Prey is captured by the superior speed of the huntress, who runs her victim down in the traditional manner of her namesake, the wolf. Or she may lie in wait at the burrow's entrance, peering over its rim, or behind the grass-stem and silk palisade, ready to spring out upon some heedless passer-by. A devoted mother, the wolf spider encloses her eggs in a rounded silken sac. This is firmly attached to her spinnerets (silk-weaving organs) , and by this means she trundles her eggs about with her wherever she goes, and will not be parted from them except by force. At home, she may sometimes be seen resting head-downwards in the tunnel entrance, holding the sac aloft in her hind-legs, and turning it over and over slowly so that every part may be thoroughly warmed by the sun's rays. When the eggs hatch, the spiderlings, bursting the sac along a seam at its equator, swarm out and climb upon their mother's back, clothing her almost completely with a shaggy, living cloak. Her eyes are kept inviolate; should a spiderling venture upon this forbidden ground, it is promptly swept back by a stroke of one of the forelegs, much as one might brush back hair from one's eyes. Sustained, apparently, by reserves of food from the eggs, the spiderlings remain with the mother for a consider-able period without definite evidence of feeding. At last, they leave the parental protection and disperse among the herb- age, each to find its own way in the world.
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