THE OUTDOOR WORLD. 



9i 



structures transmitted in heredity; nor 

 can we clearly imagine such a thing. 

 All experience and knowledge lead us 

 toward the conclusion that the devel- 

 opment of the new individual into the 

 likeness of its parent must be brought 

 about by some mechanism existing first 

 in the egg, as the egg of this crab, and 

 passing thence to each cell of the body 

 derived from that cell. It seems nec- 

 essary to imagine microscopic form 

 determiners in the cells. And how 

 shall we escape thinking that they 

 must be separated out so as to have 

 their due effects, and make in each 

 region of the body only that structure 

 appear which should be there in order 

 that the whole body may do its work? 



Yet the few cases of Homoeosis that 

 we know in animals certainly suggest 

 that in some parts more than the local 

 form factors may be present. 



Who can bring forward more evi- 

 dence from nature along this import- 

 ant line of inquiry? Insects should 

 occasionally show a translocation of 

 characters from one part of the body 

 to another. Search in insect collec- 

 tions and in the field for cases of Hom- 

 oeosis — antennae transformed to legs, 

 wings to legs, legs to antennae — and 

 let us hear about them. 



very common in Texas, a species known 

 to science as Mygale hentzi, and here 

 shown in our half-tone illustration, 

 reproduced from a photograph of a 

 specimen collected in that state. It 

 is taken life size, and it is a spider 

 held in the greatest dread by most 

 people in the region where it occurs. 

 The bite of this particular form, how- 

 ever, does not seem ever to be followed 

 by any very dangerous symptoms, and 

 never by death. There are in South 

 America some tarantulas very much 

 larger than ours, one especially called 

 the "bird-spider" which is able to prey 

 upon small birds. Big tarantulas are 

 also found in tropical regions through- 

 out the world, but they belong to very 

 different genera of the group. Most 

 of the large ones are hairy, and some 

 of them are poisonous, as for example 

 the giants of the tribe which we meet 

 with in Java and Sumatra. Many are 

 highly colored and most striking in 

 appearance, quite awe-inspiring to the 

 timid beholder. Others construct very 

 remarkable nests, and the famous 

 "trapdoor spider" belongs to a group 

 of tarantulas, and the singular nest it 

 builds is doubtless well known to many 

 of the readers of this article, as the col- 

 lectors of such objects frequently bring 

 them awav with them from the south 



A Bit of Spider Lore. 



BY DR. R. W. SHUKKLDT, WASHINGTON". 

 D. C. 



When we go as far back into history 

 as we can for all nations, we find that 

 there has been enough written on the 

 subject of spiders to make up thou- 

 sands of books or fill many a big library. 



A large part of this literature is illus- 

 trated, yet myraids of spiders in nearly 

 all parts of the world are entirely un- 

 known to science, and enough yet re- 

 mains to be ascertained with respect 

 to their habits to fill many another 

 score of volumes in the future. 



Of all the genera and species of spid- 

 ers none have attracted wider atten- 

 tion than the famous tarantulas, of 

 which there are many kinds possessing 

 the most diverse habits. We have 

 some great hairy tarantulas in this 

 country but they are confined to the 

 south-western section of it. One is 



TEXAN TARANTULA 

 (M. hentzi.) 



Photographed from life by Mr. S. Emmet 

 Robertson. 



