[16] 



Spi&cr (Boeeip/ 



Part I. 



By H. M. J. Underhill, 



Plate III. 



SINCE our nursery days we have all of us been more or less 

 familiar with spiders. At the sight of one, few fair maids 

 can quite overcome unpleasant sensations like those 

 experienced by the celebrated Little Miss Muffet, and many a 

 man avenges the heroic Tom Thumb's untimely death by squash- 

 ing some unoffending spider as a " venomous little beast." 

 Popular attention fixes on their venom and their wxbs as being 

 the two most interesting things about spiders, and these are 

 indeed the most wonderful things in a very wonderful insect. I 

 say " insect " advisedly, for good authorities call it so, although, 

 strictly speaking, spiders do not belong to " the class Insecta." 

 When, therefore, we see a spider spin its web and kill a fly, and 

 inquire, " How does she do it ? " we ask a question of great 

 scientific interest. So I propose to give some account in these 

 papers of the way of working of these two functions, and to 

 furnish besides some particulars of other parts of a spider's 

 anatomy not less wonderful. 



If anyone will catch a good big house-spider (which is dilfi- 

 cult), or garden spider (which is easy), and, after killing it in 

 methylated spirit, will carefully cut through the skin of the head 

 behind the eyes, he will be able to draw away the spider's jaws 

 with the poison glands attached. Care nmst be taken not to cut 

 too deeply, because the glands lie just beneath the skin (see P'igs. 

 I and 6). A more satisfactory way of seeing them is to harden 

 the spider in spirit, and then cut it into slices in a section 

 machine. From slices cut in this way, I have drawn PI. ni.,t and 

 most of the other illustrations of this paper. The scale of 

 magnification is noted in the description of each figure, and all 

 but No. 3 are magnified very moderately. As the magnifying 



* From The IVeicoi/ie, \)y special permission, 

 t In all further allusions to this Plate, it will be referred to as Fig. I. 



