ARACHNIDES— TARANTULA. 



797 



If this bag be separated from ber by any accident, she employs all her assi- 

 duity to stick it again in its former situation, and seldom abandons her 

 treasure but with her life. When the young ones are excluded from their 

 shells, within the tag, they remain for some time in their confinement, until 

 the female, instinctively knowing their maturity, bites open their prison, 

 and sets them free. But her parental care does not terminate with their 

 exclusion ; she receives them upon her back for some time, until they have 

 strength to provide for themselves, when they leave her, never to return, and 

 each begins a separate manufactory of its own. The young ones begin to 

 spin when they can scarcely be discerned ; and prepare for a life of plunder 

 before they have strength to overcome. 



Of this animal there are several kinds, slightly differing from each other 

 either in habits or conformation. The water spider 1 is the most remarka- 

 ble of the number. This insect resembles the common spider in its appear- 

 ance, except that its hinder part is made rather in the shape of a ninepin 

 than a ball. They differ in being able to live as well by land as water, and 

 in being capable of spinning as well in one element as the other. Their 

 appearan ze under water is very remarkable ; for, though they inhabit the 

 bottom, yet they are never touched by the element in which they reside, but 

 are enclosed in a bubble of air, that, like a box, surrounds them on every 

 side. This bubble has the bright appearance, at the bottom, of quicksilver ; 

 a-nd within this they perform their several functions of eating, spinning, and 

 sleeping, without its ever bursting, or in the least disturbing their operations. 



THE TARANTULA 2 



Is a native of Apulia, in Italy. Its body is three quarters of an inch long, 

 and about as thick as a man's little finger ; the color is generally an olive 

 orown. variegated with one that >s more dusky; it has eight legs and eight 



1 Argyroneta aquaiica, Lat. 



* Lycosa tarentula, Lat. 



67* 



