A Spider's Instinct and Reason
Dr. J. Lawrence Hamilton writes to the London Times that he saw a boy remove a small spider and place it in the center of a big spider's web which was hung among foliage, and distant some four feet from the ground. The larger animal soon rushed from its hiding place under a leaf to attack the intruder, who ran up one of the ascending lines by which the web was secured. The big insect gained rapidly upon its prey, the smaller creature, (spiders are cannibals, notably the larger females, who are given to devouring their smaller male lovers.) When the little spider was barely an inch in advance of its pursuer, it cut with one of its posterior legs the line behind itself, so that the stronger insect fell to the ground, thus affording time and opportunity for the diminutive spider to escape along the ascending rope of the web. This is not the only fact which seems to indicate that a spider's instinct may also equal reason.