Chap. 30 



ARTHROPODS — INSECTS, SPIDERS, AND ALLIES 



627 



Fig. 30.33. A complete orb web in early morning. The long trap leads to the 

 retreat from which the spider emerges when the trap line is moved by the struggles 

 of an insect caught in the web. (Photograph by Hugh Spencer. Courtesy, National 

 Audubon Society.) 



their hosts. After hatching, the larvae immediately seek their hosts and a blood 

 meal. Unlucky larvae who do not find their hosts may survive eight months 

 without food but they cannot molt or transform without a blood meal. When 

 a tick bites, it cuts with its jaws, stabs with its hypostome and injects an anti- 

 coagulating fluid into the blood. Its whole head is buried in the flesh and 

 because of tearing by the reversed teeth, it should never be pulled out quickly. 



