26 AMKKICAN ai'IDERS AND THEIK SPINNINGWORK. 



power of motion toward the claws beneatli wliieli it is situated, thus act- 

 ing as a sort of tlnindi, wiiich is used especially in grasping the spinning- 

 work. > 



In the armature of tlie legs nmst he reckoned also the calaniistrum 

 which characterizes the family Uloborinaj among the OrbitelariEe, in com- 

 mon with certain Ciniflonidte. This is a double row of curved spines, 

 placed upon the inside of the metatarsus of the hind })air of legs, in form 

 not unlike the old fashioned "Hyers" of a spinning wheel. (Fig. 15.) 

 They are used for the lloeeulation of the threads as they i)ass from the 

 spinning tubes, thus forming the peculiar cross lines which characterize the 

 spiimingwork of the above families, and serve the purpose of viscid Ijt'ads. 

 The second principal part of the spider is the abdomen. Among 

 Orbweavers it assumes widely varying forms, being globular, 

 ovate, subtriangular, cylindrical ; sometimes flat, some- 



, ® times convex above: on the ventral surface nearly 



Abdomen. ,. , , , r r ■ 



flat or slightly convex, ihus, the face of a section 



cut transversely through the middle w'ould, for the most part, 



be properly or approximately described as semicircular, except 



in the case of gravid females. The integument is soft, some- 



FiG. 15. caia- times leathery: usuallv hairy, but not densely so, sometimes 



mistrum of i , mi" • 11 



ciniflo. (Af- naked and glos.sy. The organ is generally smooth, but m .some 

 wluf'^''' species is marked with conical tubercles upon the base, and in 

 upper row somc gcucra is bordered with shai'p, hard, spinous processes, 

 b^ To"wcr '"^^^^ i^ some is ridged or striated along the rear. The base 

 row; c, the generally overhangs the cephalothorax as much as one-third or 

 ^'"^' even one-half the length of that organ with which it is united 



by the pedicle, a short cartilaginous tube through which pass the organs 

 of nutrition and circulation. 



In the female the size of the abdomen is large, as compared with the 



cephalethorax, a proportion which is greatly increased during the period 



of gestation. In the male spider the relative size of the abdo- 



^ent- jj^^,j^ jy even less than, or is eciual to the cephalothorax. The 



Colored A ^ ■ i i 



Hairs markmgs upon tlie tergum are various, and are more or less 



unihirni with every species, though subject to some decided 

 specific variations. They are caused, when present, by a pigment under 



' Tliis arrangement gives a s-trong color of justification to tlie use of the word "hands" 

 in the familiar quot;itiou irom Holy Scripture, Proverbs, xxx., 28: "The spider tiiketh hold 

 with her hands, and is in king's palaces." In various jjalaces in Europe, and in many pub- 

 lic buildings of America, I have never failed to observe spider's webs, usually some species of 

 Lineweaver, whose occupants hung by their "hands" within their silken domiciles. I hesitate 

 to tliink, notwithstanding tlie ])hilological objection that the Hebrew ri'DDE' (Semamith) 

 means " lizard," that Solomon had any other animal in view than the sjjider. The natural 

 hi.story of the text .so exactly harmonizes with the habits of spideiv, especially Lineweavers 

 and Orbweavers, that I have ditliculty in lielieving that so careful an observer of nature as 

 the Royal Proverbialist could have used the above language concerning any other aniiiial. 



