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Any one seeing this leg working with such extreme precision, the right leg to-day, the left to-morrow, becomes convinced that the Epeira is highly ambidextrous. Age does not modify the Epeira's talent in any essential feature. As the young worked, so do the old, the richer by a year's experience.
A prick of which my lens cannot see the marks, so sharp-pointed are the Epeira's weapons, was enough, with a little insistence, to kill the powerful animal. Proportionately, the Rattlesnake, the Horned Viper, the Trigonocephalus and other ill-famed serpents produce less paralysing effects upon their victims. And these Epeirae, so terrible to insects, I am able to handle without any fear.
It is an obtuse conoid, closed with a star-shaped disk. It is made of a stouter and especially a thicker material than the Banded Epeira's balloon, for which reason a spontaneous rupture becomes more necessary than ever. This rupture is effected at the sides of the bag, not far from the edge of the lid. Like the ripping of the balloon, it requires the rough aid of the heat of July.
The latter kicks out with his long, spurred shanks; the other flutters her wings. The web is tossed about to such an extent that a number of leaves, just beside the Epeira's nest, move, shaken by the threads of the framework affixed to them. And this vibration, though so close at hand, does not rouse the Spider in the least, does not make her even turn round to enquire what is going on.
In the same way, the lid of a saucepan fits the mouth by means of a projecting rim, with this difference, that the rim is not attached to the saucepan, whereas, in the Epeira's work, it is soldered to the bag or nest. Well, at the time of the hatching, this disk becomes unstuck, lifts and allows the new-born Spiders to pass through.
Well, that other dry fruit, the Banded Epeira's germ-box, likewise possesses its bursting-gear. As long as the eggs remain unhatched, the door, solidly fixed in its frame, holds good; as soon as the little ones swarm and want to get out, it opens of itself. Come June and July, beloved of the Cicadae, no less beloved of the young Spiders who are anxious to be off.
We find it in the arrangement of the scales of a fir-cone, as in the arrangement of an Epeira's limy web; we find it in the spiral of a Snail-shell, in the chaplet of a Spider's thread, as in the orbit of a planet; it is everywhere, as perfect in the world of atoms as in the world of immensities.
However, a few results, not devoid of interest, are to be noted. Let us state them briefly. The hatching takes place as March approaches. When this time comes, let us open the Banded Epeira's nest with the scissors.
Only, the Epeira's wallet, instead of seeds, holds eggs. The difference is more apparent than real, for egg and grain are one. How will this living fruit, ripening in the heat beloved of the Cicadae, manage to burst? How, above all, will dissemination take place? They are there in their hundreds.
By this characteristic we recognize the 'logarithmic spiral. Geometricians give this name to the curve which intersects obliquely, at angles of unvarying value, all the straight lines or 'radii vectores' radiating from a centre called the 'Pole. The Epeira's construction, therefore, is a series of chords joining the intersections of a logarithmic spiral with a series of radii.
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