The Clotho Spider 



in condition for running, always fit, always 

 brisk, without taking the least beakful of 

 nourishment from the day when it left the 

 egg, we could find no words strong enough to 

 express our incredulity. Now this paradox 

 of activity maintained without the stay of 

 food is realized by the Clotho Spider and 

 others. 



I believe I have made it sufficiently clear 

 that the young Lycosae take no food as long 

 as they remain with their mother. Strictly 

 speaking, doubt is just admissible, for observa- 

 tion is needs dumb as to what may happen 

 earlier or later within the mysteries of the 

 burrow. It seems possible that the repleted 

 mother may there disgorge to her family a 

 mite of the contents of her crop. To this 

 suggestion the Clotho undertakes to make 

 reply. 



Like the Lycosa, she lives with her family; 

 but the Clotho is separated from them by 

 the walls of the cells in which the little ones 

 are hermetically enclosed. In this condition, 

 the transmission of solid nourishment be- 

 comes impossible. Should any one entertain a 

 theory of nutritive humours cast up by the 

 mother and filtering through the partitions at 



379 



