284 ARACHNIDES 



the form of a hook or ear-picker, without the smallest visible opening. 

 Although Muller and others were mistaken when they placed the 

 male organs of certain Entomostraca upon two of their antennae, it 

 is very certain that the parts considered as analogous to them in the 

 Araneides are very different from those observed on the antennae of 

 those Crustacea, and that if we refuse to admit of their exercising 

 this function, it is impossible to conceive of their use *. 



According to the experiments of Audebert, who has given us a 

 history of the Monkeys worthy of the talents of that great painter, 

 it is certain that a single fecundation is sufficient for several succes- 

 sive generations, but that with them, as with all Insects and other 

 analogous classes, the ova are sterile without a union of the sexes. 

 Their nuptial season in France lasts from the latter end of summer 

 till the beginning of October. The ova first laid are frequently 

 hatched before the termination of autumn: the others remain in 

 statu quo during the winter. The females of certain species of 

 Lycosa have been observed to tear open the egg-sac when the young 

 ones were about to issue from the ovum. Th$ latter then mount on 

 the back of their mother, where they remain some time. Other 

 female Araneides carry their cocoons under the abdomen, or remain 

 near them and watch them. The two posterior feet of some of the 

 young ones are not developed until several days after they have been 

 hatched. Some, during the same period, live together, and appear 

 to spin in common. Their colouring is then more uniform, and the 

 young naturalist may easily err in multiplying their species. One of 

 our collaborators for the Encyclopedic Methodique, M. A. Lepelletier 

 of Saint- Fargeau, has observed that these animals, as well as the 

 Crustacea, possess the faculty of reproducing a lost limb. 



I have ascertained that a single wound from a moderate sized 

 Araneid will kill our common Fly in a few minutes. It is also certain 

 that the bite of those large Araneides of South America, which are 

 there called Crab-Spiders, and are placed by us in the genus Mygale, 

 kills the smaller vertebrated animals, such as Humming-Birds, 

 Pigeons, &c., and produces a violent fever in Man ; the sting of 

 some species in the south of France has even occasionally proved 

 fatal. We may, therefore, without believing all the fabulous stories 

 of Baglivi and others respecting the bite of the Tarantula, mistrust 

 the Araneides, and particularly the larger ones. 



Various insects of the genus Sphex, Lin., seize upon these Spiders, 

 pierce them with their sting, and transport them into holes where 

 they have deposited their eggs, as a source of food for their young. 



. ^ . ; - ^ 



* They must at all events be organs of excitation. 



