220 



EEOEEATIVE SCIENCE. 



rative process ; but a consideration of this por- 

 tion of the subject would be too great a 

 trespass upon the domains of physiological 

 science for such a popular article as the pre- 

 sent, and we must, therefore, confine our- 

 selves to pointing out the circumstance that 

 the form of the palpi presents a distinction 

 whereby the sex of the spider may at once 

 be recognized, those of the male being, as 

 just observed, club-shaped, fur- 

 nished with several hooks, and a 

 species of cup (Fig. 8), whilst those 

 of the female ta- 

 per to a point (Fig. 

 1, c), and are armed 

 at the extremity 

 with a toothed Fig. 8. — Last Joint of one of 

 comb, resembling the maxillary palpi of male 



those at the end of 



the feet, as well as with several long sword- 

 shaped hairs (Fig. 9). 



Fig. 9. — The Same in the Female. 



Having frequently had occasion to refer 

 to the web employed by the spider to entrap 



animal, is the contrivance whereby it is 

 enabled to construct this web. If you move 

 your lens to the termination of the abdomi- 

 nal segment of the body (Fig. 5, d), you will 

 perceive two little protuberances, in which 

 you cannot fail to recognize the spinnarets. 

 This is the longest and most prominent of 

 three pairs (Fig. 10)— the remaining two pre- 

 senting the appearance of circlets (Fig. 10, a) 

 — with which the spider is endowed for the 

 object referred to, and they are all studded 

 over with rows of little microscopic tubes 

 (Fig. 10, h h h), from which there exudes a glu- 

 tinous substance that solidifies into a filament 

 as soon as it becomes exposed to the at- 

 mosphere. 



It is the combination of all these micro- 

 scopic filaments that forms the silken thread 

 with which the wily assassin weaves its toils, 

 for the microscope has revealed that every 

 one of those almost invisible fibres which we 

 see floating in the air, is composed of hun- 

 dreds of finer ones, just as a ship's cable is 

 formed by the union of numerous lengths of 

 hempen yarn. 



But mark the dificrence in the two opera- 

 tions ! In the fabrication of a rope, the twist- 

 ing process is supplementary to much human 



-6* 



Fig. 10, — Posterior Portion of Spider's Body, showing the six spinnarets. a, Shorter spinnarets, with circlets 

 of tubes ; a*, the same magnified ; hb h, spinning tubes on long spinnarets ; 6*, single tube magnified. 



its prey, we must now mention that the most I labour employed in the cultivation of the 

 noteworthy feature in the structure of the \ liemp, its preparation for spinning, and its 



