Abstract
ALTHOUGH much has been written in a more or less fragmentary way by various authors, on the spinning organs and geometric snares of spiders, as well as on the method of entrapping their prey, the present volume is the first in which all that has been before touched upon is brought together in any systematic manner. Two other volumes are intended to follow, but the one under notice completes the subject of geometric web-spinning. In Vol. II. it is purposed to deal with the habits and industry of spiders, associated with mating, maternal instincts, the life of the young, distribution of species, and other general habits; while in the third (and concluding) volume the whole of the geometric spiders—“orb-weavers”—of the United States will be treated of systematically, and illustrated by numerous coloured plates. It might have been thought that Vol. III. would have more naturally preceded the other two; but perhaps it is scarcely fair to criticize too closely the form in which an author chooses to present his subject. Dr. McCook's evident aim is to popularize the subject of spiders' web-spinning, and all that relates to it. This is shown not only by the way in which the subject is presented, but by the bestowal of English trivial names at every turn; though it may well be doubted how far science is really advanced by thus cumbering its nomenclature. Among the most interesting portions of the present volume are those in which some snares are described, combining the geometric or Epeirid type with that of the Theridiidæ, and of which no examples have yet been found in Great Britain. Space, however, forbids our going into details of these, nor, in fact, of any part of the work. The whole volume is a mass of details, evidently the result of careful and long-continued observations; and made patent not only to the mind by lucid description, but to the eye by the very graphic illustrations thickly scattered over its pages. On one point, of very great interest in the making of geometric snares—the formation of the portion studded with viscid globules—Dr. McCook approaches very nearly to a solution of the method by which these globules are placed on the lines, but the method1 itself appears to have as yet escaped observation.
American Spiders and their Spinning Work: a Natural History of the Orb-weaving Spiders of the United States, with Special Regard to their Industry and Habits.
By Harvey C. McCook Vol. I., pp. 1–372, and 353 Woodcut Figures. (Philadelphia: Allen Lane and Scott, 1889.)
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C., O. Spiders' Webs. Nature 42, 244 (1890). https://doi.org/10.1038/042244a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/042244a0