n] WHAT IS A SPIDER? 11 



curiously enough, it is not among the cleverest 

 spinners that they are most conspicuous. In the family 

 to which most of the cellar spiders belong (Agelenidae) 

 and in the elongate brown or mouse-coloured spiders 

 found lurking under stones (Drassidae) they are 

 visible as little finger-like projections at the posterior 

 end of the abdomen, but if we have taken our 

 specimen from a circular web (Epeiridae) we shall 

 have to look for them more closely. In these spiders 

 they are beneath the abdomen near its termination, 

 and are not visible from above. Moreover when at 

 rest their tips are applied together so that they form 

 a small rosette in surface-view, or, in profile, a slight 

 cone. 



The best way to capture a spider for examination 

 is to induce it to run up into a small glass specimen 

 tube for spiders readily part with their legs if 

 handled roughly and if we have adopted this method 

 we shall see the spinnerets in use as the animal 

 crawls about the tube. It will not move without 

 first attaching a silken cable to the glass, and this 

 cable lengthens as the spider progresses, so that 

 before long the interior of the tube will be a network 

 of silken threads, and its sides will be flecked with 

 little white specks where the threads have been 

 re-attached for a new departure ; and by observing 

 closely we shall be able to note the extreme mobility 

 of the spinnerets in action. 



