The way in which ants work
is open to ordinary observation; how they all march one after the
other when they are engaged in putting away and storing up their food;
all this may be seen, for they carry on their work even during
bright moonlight nights.
39
Of spiders and phalangia there are many species. Of the venomous
phalangia there are two; one that resembles the so-called wolf-spider,
small, speckled, and tapering to a point; it moves with leaps, from
which habit it is nicknamed 'the flea': the other kind is large, black
in colour, with long front legs; it is heavy in its movements, walks
slowly, is not very strong, and never leaps. (Of all the other species
wherewith poison-vendors supply themselves, some give a weak bite, and
others never bite at all. There is another kind, comprising the
so-called wolf-spiders.) Of these spiders the small one weaves no web,
and the large weaves a rude and poorly built one on the ground or on
dry stone walls. It always builds its web over hollow places inside of
which it keeps a watch on the end-threads, until some creature gets
into the web and begins to struggle, when out the spider pounces.
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