The Life of Spiders 



The wolf-spiders, Lycosidae, also carry their egg-sac with 

 them while they stalk their prey. The egg-sac in this case is 

 dragged behind the spider, which appears to be a more convenient 

 method than that employed by the nursery web-weavers. The 

 wolf-spiders make no nursery; 

 and when the spiderlings emerge 

 from the egg-sac they pass to 

 the back of the mother and are 

 carried about pappoose-like for a 

 considerable period. (Fig. 715.) 



XL— THE VENOM OF 

 SPIDERS 



There is a very general be- 

 lief that spiders are to be feared 

 on account of the venomous 

 nature of their bites; and ii is 

 probable that the feelings of 

 repugnance with which these 

 creatures are commonly regarded 

 are due to this belief; but there 

 is really very little reason for it. 



It is true that spiders se- 

 crete poison with which they kill 

 their prey; but it does not necessarily follow that the poison that 

 would kill a fly would harm a man. And, too, spiders are exceed- 

 ingly timid and think only of escape when approached by man. 

 Even when they are caught in one's hand they merely try to get 

 away and do not, like a bee or a wasp, endeavour to facilitate their 

 escape by stinging their captor. During my study of spiders 1 have 

 collected thousands of specimens and have taken very many in 

 my hand but have never been bitten by one. Still the anxious 

 reader may ask what would have happened had you been bitten 



As already stated, (p. 170), the venom apparatus consist; 

 of a pairof glands in the cephalothorax, or one in the basal segment 

 of each chelicera, from each of which a duct leads to a small 

 opening near the tip of the chelicera of the same side (Fig. 70 

 This opening is so placed that it is not closed by the pressure of 

 the bite but allows the venom to flow into the wound. 



Fig. 204. EGG-SAC IN ROLLED LEAF 



21 3 



