TIIK Sril)i:i{ AVORLI) 



In cnlari^iiit;' the imaycs of these small spick'rs to many times their size, 

 one is at once strmk \)y their similarity to cralis aTiil lohsters. I'heir jointed 

 legs eneased in shells, which from time to time they shed, remind one strongly 

 of the erahs. and they do in fact belong to the same great family, the family 

 of arthropods, and they are not insects. 



The spider workl is the world of eight-legged creatnres just as the insect 

 world is the world of the six-legged ones, and educated men antl wt)men 

 should no more I'onfuse these great classes of heings than they confuse the 

 hipetis with the ((uadrupeds. 



They (litter from the insects in other ways than in the numln'r of their leg.s — 

 they Ikhc no feelers or antenna', those wonderful sense organs which all insects 

 ha\e, l)ut here antl there, esjiecially on the legs, are strange hollow bristles 

 or spines, which end in nerves. Their eyes also are not like insects' eyes. An 

 insect's eyes, at least its large ])rominent ones, are composed of hutidreds of 

 lenses i)r facets, while the s])ider, though he generally- boasts of eight, has only 

 sini|)le ones with single lenses. 



'I'heir life is very simi)le as com|)ai-cd with that of man\' of the insects. In 

 the fall, the mother spiders lay their eggs in a bag of their own silk, often 

 several hundred eggs Ix'ing laid in one sac. The sijiderlings hatch out in the 

 sac. and. in the Xorth, they spend the lont; winter there. 



They do not have two stages of existence as beetles or butterflies do, but 

 are hatcheil out mature and e<|ui])i)ed with the poison fangs which aid them 

 in ihcir strictly carnixoi'ous, and oft<'n c\cn camiibalistic, existence. 



They grow and sheil their skins as do the baby grassho|)pers, but they do 

 not change their form with each moult and none of them ha\e wings. 



They Inne inside their bodies, reservoirs of strange, sticky fluids which 

 they can |)our out through spigots in many ditt'erent ways. This fluid, as 

 it dries, iiuiy form drag lines which they trail Ijchind them and fasten as they 

 go to use for safety lines; with some sjjiders it nniy e\'en be |)oured out in 

 such fjuantities that it nnikes an aeroplane: with the majority, howe\fr, it 

 is \ised to make their nests or their egg sacs or the mar\'clonsly beautiful orbs 

 that prove the graveyards of so many careless insects. For the spiders are 

 the enemies of the insect world; were they more discriminating, they would 

 be perhaps the greatest friends of the human race, but, as they suck all kinds 

 of insects" blood, all that we can be sure of is that those among them which 

 we flnd in our houses arc a benefit, for there they kill the flies and other insects 

 which we do not want indoors. 



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