HOUSE SPIDERS

Nothing humiliates a housewife more than to spy a dusty streamer of
cobwebs dangling from the ceiling when she has "company". With a
cloth on the end of her broom, or a vacuum cleaner, she wages
continual war on spiders. The spider itself frequently escapes by
darting into a hide-away or dropping by a thread of silk to the floor
where it may play "possum" until things have quieted down. But in
basements, in unused rooms, in attics, between windows and screens,
beneath porches, and in garages or other out buildings, many small
spiders live their interesting lives.

Several kinds live in and around dwellings but most common of them
all, in almost every part of the world, is the House Spider. It tirelessly
spins webs in the corners of ceilings and walls, and under furniture --
webs so fine as to be invisible until coated with dust or soot. These
webs are made of crisscrossed lines of sticky silk anchored at the ends
and to each other so as to entangle any fly, mosquito or moth that
comes near. The spider hides in a crevice or in a little tunnel of silk.
As soon as a fly touches the web, the spider runs to it, flings silk over
and around it with special combs on the hind pair of her eight legs,
stabs it with her tiny poison fangs, and then injects digestive juices.
When these juices have liquefied the fly's insides, she sucks it dry,
leaving only the empty shell, legs and wings.

The house spider is dusty brown with several darker chevron markings
on the upper and lower sides of its abdomen. The female's body is
about 1/4 inch long with moderately long legs. The male is smaller.
They mate in spring and Mr. Spider soon dies or is eaten by his wife
who, 6 to 8 weeks later, lays from 50 to 200 small eggs enclosed in a
brownish pear-shaped cocoon hung in the web. The young hatch in
about a week but remain inside the cocoon until after they first molt
(shed their skin). Then they emerge to remain in their mother's web
until after their second molt. Meanwhile, in the cocoon and in the web,
they prey on each other. Only the most vigorous survive. After that,
each spins its own web and goes through 3 or 4 more molts before it is
fully grown.

The Squint-eye Spider, one of the sheet-weavers, also lives in
buildings, spinning large loose irregular webs in cellars and closets, or
under porches, shelves, and other places where the light is dim. It has
a slender, pale brown body about 1/4 inch long, and such long,
incredibly slender legs that it is often mistaken for a daddy-long-legs.
The mother carries the eggs in a thin transparent cocoon until the
young come out. She sits head down on the web and, by jumping up
and down, shakes it to further entangle insects that blunder into it.

In dry sunny places such as porches and window casings, and on the
walls of houses, we find the Jumping Spider, which is gray or black,
mottled with white bands and dots. They are hairy and have short legs.
These spiders spin silk and are usually responsible for the cobweb that
dangles from a ceiling, but make no web to capture their prey. Instead,
they seize an unwary insect by jumping on it or leaping into the air
after it. The male courts the female by putting on an elaborate leaping
swaying dance.

All spiders have fangs and small amounts of poison, but in this region,
the female Black Widow Spider is the only one dangerous to humans
and it is rare in the northern states. It prefers damp dark places, such
as under boards or in cellars. The body is black with an orange or red
mark, shaped like an hourglass, on the under side of the abdomen.
Source: Forest Preserve District of Cook County (Illinois)

CAMEL SPIDER PICTURES

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