Show I i Little Ittle L Beasts of Prey Ways Was Wa y s of the Spider S P ider idras as Seen by y the Child BY J H PAUL DIRECTOR OF NATURE STUDY IN THE STATE NORMAL Spiders are chief among little beasts of prey They feed teed on the Insects They are not insects themselves but hut butare ore are like lions and tigers to the insect world The hunting spiders run on the tho ground or on plants and their I prey rey by springing upon it as the th larger do The cobweb spiders make nests for catching Insects and live in inthe Inthe inthe the web or In a nest nearby There are aro east Aast numbers and many families of each grea great class Their habits ha its are fas fascinating c their actions intelligent their resourcefulness wonderful They pro pre an easy field for observation lead leading leading ing IlIg to the discovery of the marvelous ways of these little folk I should assign them by preference to the tho sev sov seventh nth grade in schools but our fifth graders did somo some work on this inter interesting Interesting esting group In October and I give a summary of It here for tho the benefit of fellow teachers Work In the School Room It Is still possible to collect the tho eggs e rf f spiders though the best beat time timo to be beIn beIn In ln observing those curious creatures cre is in fn September The eggs are laid in little HUle bags of hanging spider web or orin orin in fn cracks under boards bo scales of bark or stones The eggs should bo be kept ina in ina Ina a cold place for hatching in spring The fifth grade pupils in Miss Nellie Hermans class at the training school captured a number of spiders early last month These were put Dut Into chalk boxes with glass or 01 wire fronts con containing containing containing some Bome earth twigs and leaves and antI were fed upon flies After several weeks of ot almost daily of their ways by the children I requested that they tell In hi writing what they had seen and learned From the essays and drawings submitted by these pupils a afew afew afew few have been selected elected and are reproduced herewith the drawings without any alteration the essays cs nys with only the change of oe an occasional word the suppression of ot certain ands etc but otherwise substantially as written by bythe bythe bythe the pupils Watching the Spider I watched a very ery large gray spider with wit legs and a largo head hend It had Its homo home In the weeds and was dinging clinging to a tall weed It had eight logs gs and I noticed that there were little hairs all aU over oer them Spiders build their webs In the tho fall They have havo to eat most of ot the time because what they eat goes to make mako tho the thread out of If which they weave their webs One web does not last the spider all aU aUthe the time because when an Insect gets caught aught in the web it breaks it and per perhaps perhaps perhaps haps tho the spider running about would break It too The spiders have a head and an ab abdomen abdomen abdomen domen This is different from the in infects Insects insects sects because the insects havo have three parts to their bodies Helen Ball BaU Fifth Grade All spiders have hate eight legs logs fastened to their head part vart They have eight eyes ces too One small sinan family have only six Elx eyes J H P Wo We have havo ten spi spiders spiders spiders ders in our room two with little tiny heads and great groot big bodies One has spun span a kind of cocoon in the top of tho the box We think the cocoon Is full fuU of or eggs but wd w dont know for sure Wo We put loaves leaves and grasshoppers in their boxes but now they are acting as If Ie they art are dead On Saturday I dame came up to the school garden to get some toma tomatoes tomatoes toes tos and as I was going home I saw a gray spider r I tried to get it but it went down into a hole holp The female spider eats the male spi spicier tier cier It will spin a web then go up In Inthe inthe I the middle of the web The male spi t tf cn IN I 8 1 1 ere CHILDRENS DRAWINGS OF SPIDER AND WEB 1 Black garden spider choosing a mate Two males are seen on the out outside outside outside side of the web cautiously approaching 2 Little gray baby spiders descending de descending from the mothers nest 3 Large orb weavers when ready to spin 4 Adult spider swinging down lown from limb another returning Drawn from nature for this article by bv fifth grade rade pupils of oe the Training school ders dars will come slowly up the web so as asto asto asto to see soe whether the female wants to choose that one for tor her mate If It she want him bim she will kill and eat him But If Ie she does want him for her mate she will let him stay In her house but at last she will kill him too Mamie Burns Fifth Grade Ways of Spiders After the mother spider tires of her ber mate she turns round and eats him up When hen her dress falls off ofT she eats that too She lays her eggs e gs in tho the fall Her cocoon looks like a ball baIl of pink silk with a white ball hall Inside Sometimes she goes to sleep by it At other times she sho just goes to sleep anywhere Some spiders will get a beetle and lay eggs all over him and when the baby spiders get hungry they take a bite off tho the beetle Then others get tho the baby spiders on their own back till Ull they are ara large enough to tako take care of themselves The tarantula never eats cats her They live in peace together to together together gether for when you find one you are sure to find the other in a short time looking for tor the one you saw first Viola Daft Dalt Fifth Grade Catching Garden Spiders One Ono night when I was wag going home there was a great big gray spider We tried to catch it but it ran in the grass grassI I tried to get It on a stick but it ran down into a hole Then I saw a little mUe black one and It went down Into the hole too There is one ono little spider that I brought in and some cue cne has put a fly in its box It has started to spin a little Tho The big yellow spider spun a web and It has caught some flies files It now acts as If It is dead The spider that has some flies files start started started ed cd to io i cat them He Ho eats cats the head first and just leaves a little bit The Tho spiders that we have are aro called the garden spiders Edith Forsberg berg fifth grade On Friday as I was sitting in the back yard a gray spider came carne run running running running ning up on the porch It was about an aninch aninch aninch inch long It was trying to get In the house It ran along by the screen door and It stopped d by every little crack it found I tried to catch It but when I touched It with a stick it ran off down the side of the porch Lucile Farns Farnsworth Farnsworth Farnsworth worth fifth grade Spiders In Captivity In our school room we have eight or nine spiders We have two that look lookas as if they have a face on their backs They act as if they are dead One night nl ht one of them spun a web Now Nov both of ot them have webs and cocoons Some of the spiders in our room are in boxes and some In bottles They like to get up to the top of ot the box or bottle so they dan can m get the air Wo We have hae a red and a black and two t o obrown brown spiders also alEo other colors One morning we got a great big spider but It was dead The teacher told us the spiders would eat cat grasshoppers and in insects Insects insects sects The spider builds more than one web weba a year because its Us web gets broken When It spins a web It makes a place on the outside for itself When It Is homo home it stays in the place it has made for itself holding a string from the web Then If an insect gets In the web he can feel teel It The spider car cart tell if it Is Isa Isa isa a big bug this way because a big bug shakes the web yeb more than a little one If I it is II a big bug he ho lets it stay there until it gets gots tangled up and then he comes cornea up and gets It If It is a little Insect insert he ho will run out and get it Adele Charlton fifth grade crade When llen we first caught our spider it made out that it was dead We put it Itin itin in n a box and the next day it had spun a cocoon The web Is made of ot pink silk sUk We think that inside of ot the web are some little spiders The two spiders are yellow ellow and gray Their home is in peoples houses in trees corners chicken coops coal houses and in any hole or corner they can get The spiders spin webs so that they can can catch flies They can tell when there Is something in the web because they have on leg on ono one of the threads and when anything gets get in h it pulls and the he t spiders run up and kill it ItC Carlena rlena fifth grade The mother spider spins her oer web and lays her eggs In a snug little place to keep them th m warm She puts her eggs under a roof roar or r In a box or between old logs or r boards or anywhere that they will keep warm She puts Duts them where whee the the rain ice and snow cant reach them When they hatch they are so tiny one can hardly see them They generally hatch In the spring The baby spiders are ara very tiny when they are hatched They go stringing down on little threads Then they take care of themselves They hang on these threads till the wind blows them themon on a brush or fence or tree or any good place and there they spin cocoons There are about SOO spiders hatch out of the eggs egga from one spider They are hungry when they come out of the tho eggs At first the mother spider catches flies for them They grow very fast and become big In a little while Margretta Barton fifth grade Sometimes the spider carries the eggs on its back The little spiders stay on their mothers back until they are big bIE enough to spin a web for tor them themselves themselves themselves selves When they are big enough eno gh they swing down on a little thread and andall andaU andall all aU tho the babies get in a mass so that you can see nothing but legs and threads From there they let a 3 little thread blow blowout out In the wind and wherever they swing from that they weave their webs H B fifth grade Parts of the Spider I IThe The body Is divided into two twi tw parts connected by a thin joint behind the thelast thelast thelast last pair of ot legs The front part Dart is called the It contains the stomach the central part of the nervous system and the large muscles that work vork the legs and jaws The Tho hinder half is the abdomen It con contains thins tho the intestine the breathing or organs organs organs gans the principal circulating vessels the organs of reproduction and the spinning organs There are four pairs of ot legs logs a pair pall of f resembling legs and a pair of mandibles The legs are d the last joint containing various hairs spines and three tIree claws one ono of which is often replaced by a brush of hairs enabling the animal to walk up steep surfaces and to keep its face tace and mouth parts very clean The in front of the legs are six jointed and are used as feelers and for carrying food The mandibles or first pair of limbs are tWo the joint next to tho the body often furnished with teeth and hairs while the outer one is isa Isa isa a claw Behind the last pair of legs on the under side of tho the abdomen are two hard smooth patches which cover the front pair pall of or breathing organs two little slits At the end of the body are the organs or spinnerets in three pairs tho the third pair often ex extending tending behind the body like a pair vall of tails taUs There Thero Is also a spiracle or breathing pore leading to air all tubes that Branch through the abdomen The front of ot the head hend has eight eyes cy s variously arranged in different species The mouth has an upper and an under und r lip Courtship of Spiders The male is usually smaller but has legs relatively longer than the female Ho Is also darker These differences become so great in some species that the males and females would be taken as first to belong to different families Van Hasselt Hassett found that tho the disparity in size is so great in some cases that the tin same dimensions applied to the human species would result in a man six feet in height and weighing pounds married to a woman to ninety feet In height and weighing pounds Concerning one of the jumping spi spiders spiders ders a gray about the size of a thumb nail nan I have learned from Dr Howard something of Its courtship In the month of or July this interesting phenomenon among spiders occurs o occurs curs on the borders of the Great Salt lake and no doubt many other places in the west Here however it has been more closely observed by Dr Howard of the university At that season these ani animals animals animals mals come down to the shores to feed feedon feedon on the Insects that abound there It Itis ItIs Itis is at about this time also that the tho mating season occurs The female spider Is large and strong the male a small weak but vain and showy fel fellow fellow fellow low that seeks to attract her favor favorable favorable favorable able notice OH Our however at first pays but little UttIe attention to the insignificant In Insignificant significant sll Orlando who chases about after her taking care always to keep well out of her reach until she con condescends condescends condescends descends to receive him If the female makes a hostile movement the male scurries out of the way If she seems to tolerate his presence he begins to dance before her and to display his bright colors by standing somewhat upright lifting mUnS his front legs and ad advertising advertising his attractions until he se secures secures cures her temporary friendship of or Nov 21 1907 1901 |