2:10. , BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



changes of development, slowly loses its previous form, and almost 

 assumes that of a spider, indicating all the external parts of the 

 enclosed animal. At length the shell bursts on the thorax, and 

 the spider, first with the head, and afterwards with the thorax, 

 comes to view ; then follows the abdomen, to which, however, the 

 egg-membrane, like a scale, continues attached for a time ; then 

 comes the feelers and feet. The young spider, through whose in- 

 tegument the granules of the yolk may be clearly distingished, is 

 not yet in a state to weave a web and catch its prey ; for the spin- 

 ning organs are still concealed beneath the common integument. 

 After the lapse of a week, or, in some species, a longer time, dur- 

 ing which the spider takes no food, it casts its skin for the first 

 time, and is, as it were, born for the second time. The young 

 spiders now quit, on some mild day in May or June, the web in 

 which the mother had hidden her eggs ; they allow themselves to 

 fall on the ground by a thread, and begin at once to weave their 

 nets, or in some other way, according to the instinct of their kind, 

 to watch for small insects corresponding to their age and powers. 



" Most arachnids feed on other aninjals, which they either swal- 

 low alive, or whose blood and fluids they suck. Usually after 

 their escape from the egg, they undergo no metamorphosis. They 

 cast, however, their skin more than once, and are commonly after 

 the fourth or fifth moult, in a state for pairing." Van der Htvven. 



In studying spiders, of which we have in New England over two 

 hundred species, the number and relative situation of the eyes, 

 and the relative length of the different pairs of legs should be 

 noticed. Their'web and the manner of constructing them ; their 

 habitats, whether spreading their webs upon or in the ground, or in 

 trees, or on herbage, or whether the species is aquatic, or whether 

 the species is erratic, and pursue their prey without building webs 

 to entrap them, should be observed. So, also, how they deposit 

 their eggs, and the form and appearance of the silken nidus, and 

 whether the female bears her eggs about her, and how this is done, 

 whether holding on to the egg-sac by her fore or hind legs, should 

 all be carefully noticed. Care must be taken not to mistake the 

 young for full-grown, mature species, and describe them as such. 

 Spiders can reared in boxes as insects. The only way to preserve 

 them is to throw them into alcohol ; when pinned, they shrivel up 

 and lose their colors, which keep well in spirits. 



The colors of spiders vary much at different seasons of the year. 



