TCD MS 10516 folio 78recto
[12th October 1916] It is interesting to see the spider testing the radii at every thrill and carefully feeling their tension their tension when it is doubtful of its capture.
Sheet of web. A peculiarity in a sheet of spiders webbing is its remarkable power of preventing evaporation in the air beneath it. Spiders construct their sheets amongst the rank grass or over hollows in the sand. During the night a deposit of dew forms on the under surface of the web, and one would think that the warm sun, intense an hour after it rises, would almost instantly evaporate the cluster of dew drops spangled on the silken snare. But hour after hour beneath the boiling sun when the thermometer registers over 100°, and the sands burn, and the air quivers with shimmering heat; the nest of glittering drops suspended be-