178 



INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS. 



again in two or three days," The fact is, that few 

 spiders hve one year, much less three ; and all their 

 changes of skin are gone through in a few months, 

 and their acquiring new legs for mutilated ones takes 

 some weeks. It is probable, indeed, that Gold- 

 smith never thought of ascertaining the identity 

 oC this spider, if the w^iole story be not a mere 

 fancy, like his assertion, that spiders, "when they 

 walk upon sucli bodies as are perfectly smooth, as 

 looking-glass or polished marble, squeeze a little 

 sponge which grows near the extremity of their 

 claws, and thus diffusing a glutinous substance, 

 adhere to the surface till they make a second 

 step*." Neither spiders nor any injects with 

 which we are acqnainted can thus produce gum 

 from their feet to aid them in walking upon glass. 



Goat-moth caterpillar (Cossus ligniperda) escaping from a' 

 drinking glass, by spinning a ladder of silken ropes. 



* Animated Nature, pt. vi. ch. iii. See also Insect Architfc 

 lure, pp. 367-8. 



