358 INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS. 



some particles of slime and sand adhering to the glass, 

 it triumphantly gained the brim, which it began to 

 perambulate with an apparent air of proud exulta- 

 tion.* This insect is figured at b, page 382. 



The process of cleaning and brushing the legs, as 

 birds are seen to preen their feathers, is, however, 

 the most remarkable, though, perhaps, but seldom 

 taken notice of among spiders. The same process, 

 as we have recently discovered, is employed by the 

 Phalangia. The apparatus for this is admirably con- 

 trived. In the common garden geometric spider 

 (Epeii'a diadema), the teeth are used as a comb, the 

 smooth mandible being employed to hold down the 

 limb while it is slowly drawn between the teeth, to 

 free it from flue and dust. In some other species, 

 instead of smooth teeth, there is a thick-set brush 

 of hairs, which is used in the same manner, and 

 must be a still more efficient instrument. The former, 

 if we do not mistake, chiefly occurs among the geo- 

 metric spiders, whose webs are meshed and thin; 

 while the brush prevails among those which weave 

 thick webs, such as the red spider {Dysdera ery- 

 ihrina, Walckenaer), which we found in the cre- 

 vice of a chalk -rock near Erith, in Kent, but which 

 is by no means common in Britain, though abundant 

 in France. We kept this one for some time in a 

 glass, and observed that it spent the greater part of 

 its time in brushing its legs. The eyes are placed 

 m form of a horse-shoe.t 



It must have struck those who have visited a 

 menagerie of wild animals, that, even while they are 

 standing in their cages, they frequently throw their 

 heads, and also their bodies, into a sort of oscillatory 

 movement, evidently not for the purpose of getting 

 through the bars, but to supply the place of their 

 natural exercise which confinement prevents them 

 * J. R. + J. R. 



