26 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



power of motion toward the claws beneath whicli it is situated, thus act- 

 ing as a sort of thumb, which is used especially in grasping the spinning- 

 work.^ 



In the armature of the legs must be reckoned also the calamistrum 

 which, characterizes the family Uloborinse among the Orbitelarise, in com- 

 mon with certain Ciniflonida). This is a double row of curved spines, 

 placed upon the inside of the metatarsus of the hind pair of legs, in form 

 not unlike the old fashioned "flyers" of a spinning wheel. (Fig. 15.) 

 They are used for the flocculation of the threads as they pass from the 

 spinning tubes, thus forming the peculiar cross lines which characterize the 

 s])inningwork of the above families, and serve the purpose of viscid beads. 

 The second principal part of the spider is the abdomen. Among 

 Orbweavers it assumes widely varying forms, being globular, 

 ovate, subtriangular, cylindrical ; sometimes flat, some- 



. , ® times convex above ; on the ventral surface nearly 



Abdomen. ^ ,• i i mi ^ i- c ■ 



flat or slightly convex, ihus, the race or a section 



cut transversely through the middle would, for the most part, 



be properly or approximately described as semicircular, except 



in the case of gravid females. The integument is soft, some- 



FiG. 15. Gala- timcs leathei'v ! usually hairy, but not densely so, sometimes 



mistrum of i m, • i i 



ciniflo. (Af- naked and glossy. The organ is generally smooth, but m some 



ter^ Black- gp^^igg jg marked with conical tubercles upon the base, and in 



upper row soiiic gciicra is bordcrcd with sharp, hard, spinous processes, 



b T°wer ^^^^ ^^ some is ridged or striated along the rear. The base 



row; c, the generally overhangs the cephalothorax as much as one-third or 



even one-half the length of that organ with which it is united 



by the pedicle, a short cartilaginous tube through which pass the organs 



of nutrition and circulation. 



In the female the size of the abdomen is large, as compared with the 

 cephalothorax, a proportion which is greatly increased during the period 

 of gestation. In the male spider the relative size of the abdo- 

 r T^^ H ' "^*^^^ ^^ GYGii less than, or is equal to the cephalothorax. The 

 Hairs markings ui)on the tergum are various, and are more or less 



uniform with every species, though subject to some decided 

 spccitic variations. They are caused, when present, by a pigment under 



' ThiH arrangement gives a strong color of justiflfation to the use of tlic won! "liands" 

 in the fainiliar (luotation from Holy Scrii)ture, Proverbs, xxx., 28: "The spider taketh hold 

 witli licr hands, and is in king's i)ala(f.s." In various palaces in Europe, and in many pub- 

 lic buildings of America, I have never failed to observe s])ider's wi'bs, usually some s])ecies of 

 Lineweaver, whose occupants hung by their " liands" witiiin tiicir silken dninjcilcs. I ln'sitatt' 

 to think, notwithslamling the philological ol)jection that the Hebrew r\'0:op (Seinamith) 

 means "lizard," that S(jlomon liad any other animal in view than the sjjidcr. Tlu' natural 

 history of the text so exactly harmonizes with the habits of sjiiders, especially Lineweavers 

 and Orbweavers, that J have didiciilty in believing that so caicrul an ohscrver of nature as 

 tlie lioyal IVoverbialist could have used tiie alxtve language concerning any other animal. 



