I'UL&IONARIJE. 165 



posteriorly to which, by means of a short pedicle, is suspended 

 a movable and usually soft abdomen; it is always furnished, 

 under the anus, with from four to six closely approximated 

 cylindrical or conical, articulated mammillae with fleshy ex- 

 tremities, which are perforated with numberless small ori- 

 fices(l) for the passage of silky filaments of extreme tenuity 

 proceeding from internal reservoirs. The legs, identical as to 

 form, but of different sizes, are composed of seven joints, of 

 which the two first form the hip, the third the thigh, the 

 fourth(2) and fifth the tibia, and the two others the tarsus: the 

 last is terminated by two hooks usually pectinated, and in se- 

 veral by one more, which is smaller and not dentated. The 

 intestinal canal is straight, consisting of a first stomach com- 

 posed of several sacs, and then of a second stomach or dilata- 

 tion surrounded with silk. According to the observations of 

 M. Leon Dufour Ann. des Sc. Phys. VI it occupies the 

 greater part of the abdominal cavity, and is immediately en- 

 veloped by the skin. It is of a pulpy consistence, and is form- 

 ed of granules(3), whose individual excretory ducts unite in 

 several hepatic canals, which pour the secreted matter into 

 the alimentary tube. In the middle of its superior surface is 

 a depressed line, where the heart is lodged, and which di- 

 vides that organ into two equal lobes. Its form, like that of 

 the abdomen, varies according to the species; thus in the 

 Epeira sericea its contour is festooned. In this subgenus, as 

 in the Lycosa tarentula, its surface is covered with a whitish 

 coat split into areolae, which, in several species, are easily 

 perceived through the glabrous skin ; they may be seen obey- 

 ing the impulse communicated to them by the systole and 



(1) These holes are pierced in the last segment, which is frequently retracted. 

 If it be strongly compressed, very small mammilla, (at least in some species,) per- 

 forated at the extremity, are protruded they are the true fusi or spinning 1 appa- 

 ratus. Some naturalists think that the two smaller mammillae, situated in the 

 middle of the four exterior ones, furnish no silk. 



(2) This joint or the first of the tibia is a kind of patella. 



(3) The liver of the Scorpions is composed of pyramidal and fasciculated 

 lobules, a circumstance which seem* to announce a more advanced degree of 

 organization. 



