SSoS^ 55 *" ■y.K^r^T^r^^F. 



ably the most outstanding eccentricities of the 

 animal kingdom. 



Under the hand-lens my sea-spider reveals itself 

 at once, superficially at least, as being a distinctly 

 spider-like creature; that is to say, it has eight long 

 legs radiating from what, for the want of a better 

 term, I shall call its body. But here the resem- 

 blance to the spiders ends. In every other detail, it 

 differs as much from the true arachnid as does the 

 bird from the bat. I am not unmindful that by 

 some naturalists it has been classed as an arachnid. 

 The truth is, however, that it cannot with cer- 

 tainty be identified with any other known group 

 of animals. There are upward of two hundred 

 species comprised in the Pycnogonida, and in not a 

 single one is there found a distinctive affinity with 

 the typical spiders. It stands alone, unique. 



But let that pass. It holds something more im- 

 portant for us than systematic distinctions. About 

 the first thing that strikes us is the fact that this 

 creature is without a head, so to speak, and it 

 is all but utterly devoid of an abdomen; what ex- 

 ists of its body consists almost entirely of a thorax 

 — and there is even not much of this. In short, the 

 sea-spider is virtually all legs. 



[32] 



