Article December 11, 1902 Issue

How Does the Spider Spin its Web?

Lyman Jackman

Scientific American

Every observing country boy has noticed the wonderful feats of the spider in suspending his bridge from one point to another, high in air. My father often told us how he and his father, while crossing a bridge over the Merrimack River in Boscawen, N. H., early one morning, saw a spider's web extending clear across the river from one point direct to another, a distance that must have been at least two hundred and fifty or three hundred feet. The sun was just appearing over the tree-tops and shone upon the web, so that it was distinctly seen the entire length. They speculated how the spider could have spanned the stream with his web. Certainly the web could not have been strung by the help of the wind, which, nine times out of every ten, blows down the river in this locality. The prevailing winds in New Hampshire are from the northwest; and the river at this point flows from the northwest and runs southeast; the bluffs are quite high on each side, from which it follows that the east or west wind could not have blown strong enough at this point to have carried the web across.

Every open-eyed countryman knows that large spiders can walk on the water, or rather run. I have seen them frequently go so fast on the water that one could hardly see them. I have thrown them into the water many times, where the current was swift, to see how soon they would reach the shore. To any one not familiar with this insect it would be surprising to see how swiftly it can run over the water.

My grandfather thought that the spider ran across the river, although the current was deep and strong at this point. But my father could not agree to this proposition. He said it would be impossible for a spider to regain the other shore so directly across and then carry his web so high above the water and fasten it to the tree branches on the opposite side without getting the web entangled in the branches in climbing the trees. Neither of them could solve the mystery. I have noticed in attics and barns that spiders spin their webs from one rafter to another at an angle of about thirty or forty degrees. I have also seen them spinning webs from one branch of a tree to another. They seem to jump from one branch and swing on the web so as to reach the lower branch at sometimes an angle of forty degrees or less. Webs formed on these angles are frequently seen. The upper cable seems to be the one that holds the web; and below this cable the web is spun. But how a web is thrown directly across a road or river is beyond my comprehension, unless the insect, after having crossed the river, attaches the web to some bush, then climbs a tree, and spins down to the web, detaching and carrying it to the higher branches. This the spider can do, I am sure, for I used to like to break the webs in order to observe how carefully the insect would pick up the broken strands, mend them, and then carry the broken ends to their proper places.

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