HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1929-03-21, Page 3MISUNDERSTOOD BUSY SPIDER
CHECKS MANY ..INSECT PESTS
•
le Spins His Web. or Trap 'Instinctively',. Without Learning
How -Yet 1 --le Has the Dawning of a Mind ;and
Captures, the Moth as "t Files
perience, without any' apprenticeship,.
without any leax'uing. That is the
mystery of instinct, The web is made
true to pattern the very first time the
•spider tries, true to the particular pat,
tern of that particular species. It can
be made in the course of an afternoon
or in less time. It can. be made in
the dark.
In making an ordinary web the
Spider first lays the foundation lines,
Often four in number; and these are
made particularly strong, for they are
used over .and over again. Next the
spider starts from the middle of the
top foundation line and drops to the
middle of the lower foundation line,
paying but a line of silk, , and pulls
that taut. Then it climbs up that line,
pauses for a moment in the middle,
begins to pay out another line. walks
along the upper foundation line to the
right-hand corner andpulls the third
ray taut. Then back again to the cen-
tre, down the lower half of the cen-
tral ray. away to the lefthand corner,
paying out the lower. drag Hen and
tightening it. So it goes on from side
to side until the rays of the web are
like the spokes of a wheel:
Now the spider goes to the centre
ot the web and with pecular strides
swings from ray to ray, paying out.
what is tailed the primary spiral,
which is :lot viscid, but is just the
scaffolding. When it has completed
the primary spiral, which binds all
the rays together, it starts atithe cir-
cumference and with a different kind
of swinging movement it makes the
second spiral, the sticky spiral, the
spiral that forms the snare for the
insects. Being very economical, as it
makes and completes .tne secondary
spiral it eats up the primary spiral,
the scaffoluiug that made the second
spiral posses e. in toe waking of au
ordinary earuen spider's web there
are these tour chapters: Laying the
foundation lines, making the rays,
making the primary spiral and mak-
ing the 'viscid secondary spiral.
By J, ARTRUR THOMSON,
Professor of Natural History, Univer-
sity of Aberdeen,.
Iu.the New York Times
Few of` us are devoted to snakes,
i'ew of us dote on centipedes, and one
•annot say that there is a strong pre-
udice in favor of spiders, "Yet spid-
ers are fascinating in their works and
ways. We., like them almost iu spite
of themselves,
One of 'the few unwise things that
Emerson did was to describe an im-
proved earth in which there should
be no spiders. A little natural his-
• story would soon have convinced him
that the world without spiders would
be unendurable, for it is by means
of spiders' that the insect scourge is
kept in check. There is an old adage
with much truth in it:
If you wish to live and thrive,
. Let the spider run alive.
•Spiders are not insects. 'They -are
no nearer to insects than reptiles are
to birds,, Spiders have no wings,
;while almost all insects have; yet
spiders can make aerial journeys on
the wings of the wind, borne by their
silken parachutes, Spiders have no
feelers or antennae, which all insects
have, yet spiders. speak, to one an-
other by vibrations They have a
pense of touch unexcelled in the
;whole animal kingdom. They have
structures that take the place of feel-
ers and are exquisite organs of tac-
tility.
A spider has four pairs of legs,
while an insect has three pairs. At
the end . el the seller's legs are
curved toothed claws by which the
spider can hold, on to anything that
leas any, roughness of surface. A
spider often runs along the ceiling
Bolding on to tee plaster with these
claws .a remarkable acrobatic feat,
defying gravity.
A. spider's Equipment
Willie insects nave tares pairs el
jaws, spluers have two Pairs, and in
their mouths is a part like a halt-
open penknife, at the base of which
is a poison gland. All spiders are
poisonous, and they poison their vic-
tims by nipping them with this knife-
like weapoii. A .spider has a waist,
suggesuug the waist of a wasp, a
narrow. anthmus between head and
breast, which are joined in one, and
the posterior.. body. .. Through that
narrow. waist, as narrow often as a
wasp's, the food canal, the nerves and
the blood vessel have to pass. All
spiders have spinning glands also,
from which comes a ;multiple jet of
jiquid silk.
Another peculiarity of spiders is
that they hatch out as fully -formed
young spiders, whereas most of the
insects emerge from the egg as
grubs, caterpillars or some other
form ot larvae. But out of the
spider's egg there comes a creature
that has simply to grow atidi moult
to ,become a tull-sized spider.
Just as we eanuot understand hive
bees without knowing something
about wax, or wasps unless we un-
derstand the paper of their beautiful
banging houses, so we .cannot under-
stand tun spider unless we know
something about silk, for all spiders
are silk producers. Tale silk is a
liquid. it is exuded from a large
numuer of small glands in the pos-
terior part of the spider's 'body. 1t
comes out as a liquid jet, which
hardens instantaneously on exposure
to air. Cut of that liquid sink, the
spider makes all sorts of contriv-
ances. it is always paying out a drag
line of silk as it moves on difficult
journeys. If a spider is creeping
along the ceiling and its footing gives
way, instantly it presses its spinning.
arms against the whitewash and so
can sink with dignity to the ground,
paying out a rope of silk. Sometimes
it changes its mind when half -way
down and turns again and climbs up
the rope, winding in the silk as it
ascends, Every spider has this power.
of paying out a drag line.
The drag line is of the same ma-
terial as the nest lining. the snare,
the web and the cobweb, which is
a low-grade Web without any geo-
metrical pattern. We admire the web
of a garden spider and wonder how
such a beautiful and effective thing
could be evolved. When we notice
the drag line, the threads about the
nest, the tangle of the snare, the un-
tidy cobweb and the simple webs, we
see by how long a process of evoke
tion tho orb web has become possible,
The drag line is the foundation of all.
One use spiders have for their silk
is to make a cradle for the young.
They wrap up the eggs in a silken
bag, a cocoon. The cocoon. of an in-
• 'sect is the enclosure that the' larval
insect makes for the time of the great
metamorphosis when the caterpillar
changes into a butterfly. But the
cocoon of a spider is quite different.
It is a silken bag for holding the
eggs and by and by the young spiders.
Sometimes the threads of silk are
used as a parachute by Means of
which the small 'spiders are wafted
ter miles through the air. Darwin
teeords in his "Voyage of the Beagle"
that the ship's rigging Was covered
with little spitlers sixty iiiiles off the
coasts of South America. These aer-
onauts had been borne on the wind
many.'ieagues over the sea before they
came to rest on. tete ship.
Familia
Leo Will ..Soon Be Heard Say "Hello F.ollba"
Killing On High Seas
Involves 4 Nations
HOLD YOUR EAR$, Lho IS tuOlNie 10 tier. '4l U int e• -ler —ee n
Leo,` famous trademark of Metro -Goldwyn -Mayer pictures, has become a familiar movieneeLe plc
tures are screened =Ii well-known'roars hitherto silent,are now being 'recorded for talking devices, so it evi
1 S ,
be "See and Hear Leo"
The United States .Deports to
Brazil Sailor Who Caused
Death of Norwegian on
Swedish Vessel
•"'A, story of manslaughter on the
High sons, which started with the
quarrel of two sailors over a shaving
inrush and has caused international
complications, has now been brought.
to au end, through the extradition re-
cently to Brazil of Francesco, alias
Manuel De Lixu,,, a nineteen -year-old
oiler on the Sevedish steamer Liguria
of the Swedish Lloyd line.
The events date to Aug. 23, last
year, when the steamer was thirty-six
miles off Ambrose Light, Port of New
York, according to statements made
by witnesses at the • time. Irma was
shaving on ,deck when Olaus Monson,
to have a drink of water and saw that
his shaving brush was being used. He
took the brush from Lima, but there
was no quarrel, Later the two Hien
had breakfast together. Afterward,
however, they were found fighting,
witnesses said, and Lima struck Mon-
son so severely with an iron bar that
he died from internal injuries the fol-
lowing day, • Before his death Mon-
son. gave his version of the row. De
Lima, on his part, maintained he had
been persecuted by his fellow -sailor.
He admitted the blow. A prelimin-
ary Bearing was held on board the
steamer by the Assistant • United
States Attorney. The Brabiliau sail-
or was arrested and placed in jail in
Brooklyn.
Olof H. Lamm, Swedish Consul
General in New Y ork, sought imme-
diately to have De Lima sent to
Sweden to he tried there, as the crime
was committed on board a Swedish
steamer on. the high seas. At the
same time the Swedish Legation in
Washington communicated with the
secretary of State and asked xur Da
Lima's extraditiun.
The case was referred to Extradi-
tion cominissioner William J. Wilson
of the Federal Court, . astern, Dis-
trict of New York, who decided teat
the extradition treaty between the
United States and Sweden was not
applicable. Shortly afterward the
Department of Labor deported De
Lima to ktio de Janeiro. •
it seems ukeiy now teat the Swed-
ish and ivorwegiau autuurities wili
seen to have De Lima meal velure a
Brazilian court. lrianuel ue Burros,
Consul tieneral for Brazil in New
York, has taken charge of the case.
11
a dome, she lays her eggs and brings New Sources of Rubber Located
Up her young.
by Exploration in. • adagascar
Can one understand anything about •
the mind of the spider? It is pecu-
liarly difficult for' mail, who is a crea-
ture of intelligence, to get psycholo-
gically near a creature whose whole
hie is dominated by instinct. Spiders
make their web, their trap-door, their
diving bell instinctively. We know
that because they do it perfectly the
very first time, and also because' of
another impressive fact; if we inter-
rupt thein when they are in the mid-
dle ot their building operations they
are strangely nonplused, quite unlike
a clog or a eat that appreciate.: intel-
ligently the relations of things. The
spider is puzzled and often has to be-
gin again. at the beginning, like, a
child repeating a piece • that it has
learned by rote and does not very
well uuderstand.
Yet the spider has the dawning of
mih}d, if you give it a tempting fly
that has been dipped in turpentine
it eagerly snatches at the food, but
soon rejects it. 9rive it half an hour
to forget and try again ,with. the tur-
pentined fly. The instinct is too
strong; the spider rushes forward,
seizes the prey and rejects it
again. Give it an hour and it will
repeat the process. But after three
or four times no more turpentined
flies for that spider, It has mind to
the extent that it can profit by ex
perience, Next day it will have no-
thing to do with flies that look like
the turpentined fly.
It is hard to uelieve that some of
the things that spiders do are not
actuated by reason. 1n. Queensland,
Australia, lives a fine spider called.
the lviaguiiicent—the female is like a
bit of rainbow. This spider makes
no web but still has a way of get-
ting its food, It lowers itself from a
twig on , the end of a thread about
three inches Jong, then puts out a
short thread about an inch long,
with a viscid drop at the end. When
a moth conies laying past in the dusk
the spider casts for it with the viscid
globule and draws it in as a fisher-
man lauds k bass. The trick is so
wonderful one feels it must have a
tittle intelligence behind it. ,
•
•
An Architect by Instinct
t ilea a CU, E1 t+aa Cd Lauatitl to notice
shunt tie well, l iigt, it is made very
ciu1eily; omen it is mane every uay,
Just as a vale of toe uay's routine,
Laougnh toe ,nunnation lines are useu
over and over again. Second, each
Kind of sewer, it it makes a web at
all, makes it of a particular pattern.
]livery species has its own architec-
ture. Third, the web is not the prod-
ucteof intelligence—there is no hope
in that theory—but is made 'Justine.
tively,1 without learning, without
training, though it may be adjusted
to difficulties or to situations by a
spice of judgment. •
In spiders the sexes usually differ
greatly in size. Ordinarily the male
is a pigmy compared with his mate.
The disproportion is almost inered.-
ible. 1t is as if a man six feet high
were to marry a woman the height of
a church steeple or as if a man
weighing Iso pounds were to mate
with a woman weighing 20 0,00.0
pounds.
in toe breeding season these pigmy
mates, which have no end of pluck,
often sleet together in little com-
panies and eget, They fight like
those birds tuat used to breed in
Britain, the rues, whose mates are
called reeves, that are still visitors
to the Norfolk Broads, The com-
bats of the fulls have often been
described, and similar comets occur
among spiders. 'They tight and fight,
hour after lieu, but at the end there
is no wounded warrior. 'Their duels
are like those of politit:ians-•=most
vigorous and spirited, but no blodd is
drawn.
Courting Under Difficulties
The male spider's courting has to
be done with care. He may show
off his good points of color and
agility; he may dance around his de-
sired mate, -sometimes a hundred
times, at a great rate, or he may in
other ways—for instance, by twirling
one of the threads leading to the web
on which he is sitting—indicate his
intentions. But the female has a
capricious temper, and what begins
playfully and pleasantly often ends
in a• death when she makes a rush at
him. •
But, while . the female spiders are
cross-grahled as • sweethearts, they
are devoted as mothers, unsurpassed
in care for the young. • The eggs,
wrapped up in beautiful silken bags,
are hidden under stones or among
the twigs of a bush, or under• loose
bark. Sometimes the mother spider
is still more careful and Carries her
cocoon about with her, Bolding, it
firmly and binding it to her body
With silken threads. If you take-
away the silken coeoonf about the
size of a .pill, from the mother, and
put it at a slight distance, you may
See her search about She is Very.
short-sighted; ''she gropes and feels
for the lost cocoon If you give it
to' her again, she trundles it under
her body and off she goes.
One mother spider makes a trap-
door nest, a wonderful contrivance
comp -ion hi the south of France, a
deep shaft sunk in the ground, lying
smooth, plastered smooth ; and fitted
witi a lice with a silken hinge. All
that trouble le not• for a house for her
but for a cradle for the young ones.
Another clever mother is the inimit-
able water strider. She makes a web'
Underneath the water and fills it with
Washington — Twenty-three plants included in the collection, among them
believed to be potential sources of rub-
ber are among botanical specimeus
which Dr.F Charles F. Swingle of the
U.S. Department of Agriculture re-
ceutly brouget irom Madagascar.
Dr, swiugie is the first American,
to visit the island on a plant -hunting
exploration. His trip was made pos-
sible through the co-operation of the
bureau of plant industry with the
Arnold Arboretum of Boston, the Uni-
versity of Algiers, and by the friendly
interest of the French and Madagascar
governments.
Ten ot the plants are being com-
mercially exploited for rubber at the
present time in Madagascar, Dr.
bwiugle says. Some of them have al- spent, transportation was extremely
ready been introduced into the United i ctit1icult. Although some of the trip
a number of specimens of elephant s
foot, several aloes and a rare hibiscus -
like shrub. "
A duplicate set of the collection was
lett at Tananarive as a_ "nest egg" to
serve for replacing in case of loss or
injury to the collection during its long
journey to the United States. Another
duplicate set was sent to the Univers-
ity of Los Angles.
Although Lr. Swingle , was finding
new rubber plants that may enable
the rest of the world to continue to
"ride on rubber," he was not so for-
tunate at all times in his own mode of
travel. lu the southern part of the
island where most of his time was
States and are being tested in the
department's experiment, garden in
southern Florida.
Another plant which promises to be
of economic importance is the alom-
bora, a large leguminous tree which
produces "leety," a gum used in varn-
ish manufacture.' Numerous ornamen-
tal plants, shrubs, vines and trees are i
euutuu atty.:: Las 1111 LC111purary Set.
These are the temporary or decidu-
ous teeth—being known also as the
"milk teeth", from which you will be
aware, of course, that they won't be
retained right through adult age.
They should all remain in place, how-
ever, until about the seventh year,
when, through the natural process of
how main* s4uiiidt were Del "'leu shedding. they commence to be lost.
little augers and tea little toes"—mak- 'Then, as the time approaches for
was made by automobile, at times it
was necessary to ase the "filanzana,"
a sort of sedan chair swung on two
poles carried by four natives. With
the baggage carriers and 'guides the
party on the march consisted of 40
or 60 men and 30 miles was a good
avrs'l tyad .e bis-Nngelesingshrdnn
day's travel.
The spider intakes its web by in-
. that Is to say, 'without any ex•
dry air, and in that diving bell, as in
+litiw"t '
J'iilcs: ' "If you drop halves and
forks it means company's coming."
Wilke: "If you miss then, it means
they're gone."
The Baby Teeth
A Series or .E-krticies or inter-
est to ail 1Viothers, Young
and Old Particularly
Young
tug twenty in all—and there you have
their number. as to remember,
isn't it?
And when should you begin to look
for them? About the sixth or seventh
month.
And which comes first? As a rule,
the lower trout tooth, the central in-
cisor.
•So after all baby's fretfulness he has
a brand new tooth or two -so white
and so sound they look that you never
give a thought to future tooth troubles.
Then the other eighteen or nineteen
white coated little "millers" will fol-
low at somewhat regular intervals
until Sonny is two years old, when he
A Foolish Stunt That Should Be Stopped
the eruption of the second set. unless
the first teeth are sufficiently separ-
ated iu trent to allow one or two
thicknesses of blotting paper between
them, the arches have not properly
expanded and the second set is cer-
tain to be crowded and irregular. in
such case, the family dentist should
always be consulted.
Since Sonny is going to lose these
small teeth in good time and get a
nice new set, why bother to care for
them?
Well, little Sonny does not want a
tooth -ache any more than do you—and
for several other good reasons, of
which more to follow.
STUNT RIDER FORCES MOUNT THROUGH FLAMES
At a etexlealt rodeo held in Asset Park, Los Angeles, Captain Claus Pitt staged this
ride through dame and 'smoke on his horse, "Red Head"
daring and
i
•---
Britain's "Safety
Glass"
tt is Bullet -Proof and Non-Dis-
colorable, Laboratory
Tests Show
In desurivauri ttie uuW "gaiety
glass,'' wnien is asaerteu to be "nun-
eplinterable, non-discolorabie and non-
tnuammable," and which was recently
patented by au i„uglise firm, The Lou-
don Daily Telegraph notes some of
the testa to which it has been subject-
ed ane its appearance as eoilows:
"'Tests at r'araday House Testing
Laboratories have uteu made of tea
new glass, bubjecteu to a powerful
uhereury vapor aautp tor twenty-four,
hours It snowed nu discoloration, al
though, the temperature of the glass
when unuer test was about 17:1, Wien
service revolver buffets were fired at
the glass at distances of ten and
twenty -live yarns .the glass was put.
verized to a depth of 1.32 of an inch
only,
"ia appearance it is almost identi-
cal with ordinary glass. it can be
made in any shape or size (within the
limits imposed by the protective raw
materials) and in any thickness, from
that of the finest optical glass to that
of bullet-proof glass.
"The facts that `xetal' is not made
with the ordinary celluloid (nitro-
cellulose) which upon exposeure to
the sun's rays becomes discolored
even in temperate zones, and that it
is not inflammable, are advantages
claimed for it by its manufacturers."
Britain Plans Curb
on Forced Labor
Gradual Elimination of Ser-
vice in Kind in Tropics is
Aim of Dominions
Secretary
London—The Dominions Secretary,
L. C. M. S. Amery, at a League of
Nations'Onion conference on forced
labor here, referring to the survival of
this institution in Africa, said the
question was how gradually to limit
aucl in time eliminate, those forms of
customary service in kind, He re.
(erred particularly to public roads and
' drainage works, on which service in
kind is still held indispensable in some
backward areas.
The- Colonial Undersecretary, Wei
,lain A. Ormsby Gore, said forced
labor had been eliminated practically;
everywhere in British territory out-
side of tropical Africa and its main
use to -day, whether for native or pro
tectorate governments, was in connec-
tion with roads.
H claimed that conditions under
which compulsory labor was resorted,
spectacular to by British administration were
comparatively free from abuses,