210 EVENINGS AT THE MICROSCOPE. 



body, and limbs ; the multitude of small bead-like joints 

 into which the foot (tarsus) is divided : and in particular 

 the hammer-like form of the modified antenme, which 

 bend abruptly downwards, and have pincer-tips. These 

 are highly curious, and you may examine them at your lei- 

 sure ; but for the present we will return to our Spiders. 



Ever since those mythic times when Arachne contended 

 with Minerva for supremacy in needlework, and was 

 changed, for her pains, into a spider, our little spinners 

 have been famous (Spider = ^m\\z) for their matchless 

 achievements in thread. And still their industrious art 

 is plied everywhere around us ; in our chambers, in our 

 windows, in our cellars, in our walls, in our gardens, in 

 waste and desert places, and even under water. But you 

 shall hear what Professor Owen says on the degree and 

 mode in which Spiders exercise their singular secreting 

 faculty, which " varies considerably in the different 

 species. Some, as the Clubionce, line with silk a conical or 

 cylindrical retreat, formed, perhaps, of a coiled-up leaf, 

 and having an outlet at both extremities, from one of 

 which may issue threads to entrap their prey. Others, 

 as the Segestrice, fabricate a silken burrow of five or six 

 inches in length, in the cleft of an old wall. The Mygale 

 cemetaria lines a subterraneous burrow with the same 

 substance, and manufactures a close-fitting trap-door of 

 cemented earth, lined with silk and so attached to the 

 entry of the burrow as to fall down and cover it by its 

 own weight, and which the inmate can keep close shut 

 by means of strong attached threads. 



" The arrangement of Spiders by Mr. Walckenaer into 

 families, characterised by their habits, places the principal 

 varieties of their webs in a very concise point of view. 



" The Cursores, Saltatores, and Laterigradw make no 

 webs : the first catch their prey by swift pursuit ; the 

 second spring upon their prey by insidious and agile- 

 leaps ; the third run, crab-like, sideways or backwards, 



