WHAT A SPIDER EATS PER DIEM.

Southland Times, Issue 1086, 8 January 1869, Page 3

WHAT A SPIDER EATS PER DIEM.

la order to test what a spider can do in the way of eating, we arose about daybreak in the morning to supply his fine web with a fly. At first, however, the spider did not come from its retreat so we peeped atnoug the leaves and there discovered that an earwig had been caught and was now being feasted on. The spider left the earwig, rolled up the fly, and at once returned to his " first course." This was at 5^ a.m. in September. At seven a.m. the earwig had been demolished, and the spider, after resting awhile and probably enjoying a nap, came down for the fly, which he had finished at nine a.m. A little after nine we supplied him with a daddy long legs, which he ate at noon. At one o'clock a blowfly was greedily seized, and then immediately with an appetite apparently no worse for his previous indulgence, he commenced on the blowfly. | During the day and towards evening a great many small green flies, or what are popularly termed midges, had been caught in the web ; of these we counted one hundred and twenty all dead and fast prisoners in the spider's net. Soon after dark, provided with a lantern, we went to examine whether the spider was suffering from indigestion or in any other way from his previous meals ; instead, however, of being thus affected he was employed, in rolling up together the various little green midges, when he took them to his retreat and tea. This process he repeated, carrying up the lots in little detachments, until the web was eaten, for the web and its contents wera bundled up together. A slight rest of about au hour was followed by the most industrious web-making process, and before daybreak another web was ready to be used in the same way. Taking the relative size of the spider and of the creature it ate, and applying this to a man, it would be somewhat as follows : — At daybreak a small alligator was eaten ; at seven a.m., a lamb ; at nine a.m., a young cameleopard ; at one o'clock a sheep and during the night one hundred aud twenty larks. This, we believe, would be a very fair allowance for a man during twenty- four hours, and could we find one gifted with such aq appetite and digestion, we can readily comprehend how he might spin five miles of web without killing himself, provided he possessed the necessary machinery. — ' English paper.'