Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 50.djvu/520

502 those close-spun, flat, button-shaped objects, about half an inch in diameter, which are so common in winter on the under side of bark, chunks, and flat rocks. Others are balloon-shaped and attached to weeds. "Within the latter the young spiders often hatch in early winter, make their first meal off their empty egg cases, and then live together in hunger and harmony until the south winds blow again, when they emerge and scatter far and wide in search of sustenance.

The "wandering" spiders never spin webs, but run actively about and pounce upon their prey with a tiger-like spring. Six or eight of the larger species of this group winter in the mature form beneath logs and chunks, being often frozen solid during cold weather, but thawing out as healthy as ever when the temperature rises. Retiring beneath the loose-fitting bark of hickory or maple trees, a number of the smaller tube-weaving spiders construct about themselves a protecting web of many layers of the finest silk. Within this snug retreat they lie from November until April—a handsome, small, black fellow, with green jaws and two orange spots on his abdomen, being the most common species found motionless within this seeming shroud of silk on a day in midwinter.

In any Northern State as many as four hundred different kinds of the six-footed or true insects, in the winged or adult stage, may be taken in winter by any one who is so disposed, and knows where to search for them. Among the Orthoptera there are a half dozen or more grasshoppers which, when full grown, are less than half an inch in length, gray or blackish in color, and with the hard upper crust of the thorax extending the full length of the body and covering the wings. They are called "grouse grasshoppers," and daring cold weather they hide beneath the loose bark of logs, or beneath the bottom rails of the old Virginia worm fences. From these retreats every warm, sunny day tempts them forth in numbers. On such occasions the earth seems to swarm with them, as they leap before the intruder, their hard bodies striking the dead leaves with a sound similar to that produced by falling hail. The common field cricket belongs also to the Orthoptera, and the young of various sizes winter under rails and logs, bidding defiance to Jack Frost from within a little burrow or pit beneath the protecting shelter.

The true bugs, or Hemiptera, hibernate in similar places; squash bugs, chinch bugs, "stink" bugs, and others being easily found in numbers beneath loose bark or hidden between the root leaves of mullein and other plants.

Nearly three hundred species of Coleoptera, or beetles, occupy similar positions. Almost any rotten log or stump when broken