Spiderly Musings

From The Bug Book (1981 Childcraft Annual), which Reed asked me to read to him this morning:

Water spiders: "When two...water spiders mate, the male spider builds a smaller house close to the female's house. He connects the two houses with a tunnel of silk. The eggs are laid in the female's house and the babies hatch there." (p.269)

Jumping spiders: "If you could jump as well as a jumping spider, you'd be able to leap more than two hundred feet...These spiders also have marvelous eyesight. They can see their prey a foot or more away. And they can judge the distance perfectly. " (p.271)

Flying spiders: "Soon after a spiderling breaks out of its egg sac, it climbs up a tall grass stem or to the top of a bush. Then, facing into the warm spring breeze, it lets out its silken threads. The breeze catches the strands of thread and pulls the spiderling into the air!...The bits of thread are like a balloon, which is why this strange sight is called ballooning. How far will the spiderling fly? If the breeze dies, the spiderling may go only a short distance. But it can take off again. By increasing the length of the threads, a spider can go higher. And by shortening the threads, it can come down. Spiders have come down on ships as far as two hundred miles from land! And they have been found at a height of ten thousand feet! Why do spiderlings journey through the air? This is nature's way of helping them survive. Hundreds of baby spiderlings come out of every egg sack. If they stayed where they hatched, there wouldn't be enough food for all. By soaring off into the sky, each spiderling has a chance to come down in a place where there are no other spiders." (p.273)

Now Reed has brought his blankets and pillows out. He has one blanket bundled up in a loose round shape. He placed this behind his pillow and laid gently by it. Jax stepped down nearby and Reed said, "Don't! You don't want to smash the spiderlings in their egg sack, do you?"