THE STRUCTURE AND HABITS 

 OF SPIDERS. 



CHAPTER I. 



ANATOMY AND CLASSIFICATION. 



The spiders form a small and distinct group 

 of animals, related to the scorpions, the daddy- 

 long-legs, and the mites, and less closely to the 

 insects and crabs. They are distinguished by 

 the more complete separation of the body into 

 two parts ; by their two-jointed mandibles, dis- 

 charging a poisonous secretion at the tip ; and 

 by their spinning-organs, and habits of making 

 cobwebs and silk cocoons for their eggs. 



The common round-web spider, Epeira vul- 

 garis of Hentz, will serve as well as any 

 species to show the anatomy of spiders in 

 general. Fig. i shows the under side of this 



ii 



