Chap. 30.] SCORPIONS. 29 



generally supposed that it is the female spider that spins, 

 and the male that lies in wait for prey, thus making an equal 

 division of their duties. 



CHAP. 29. THE GENERATION OF SPIDERS. 



Spiders couple 89 backwards, and produce maggots like eggs ; 

 for I ought not to defer making some mention of this subject, 

 seeing, in fact, that of most insects there is hardly anything 

 else to be said. All these eggs they lay in their webs, but 

 scattered about, as they leap from place to place while laying 

 them. The pbalangium is the only spider that lays a con- 

 siderable number of them, in a hole ; and as soon as ever 

 the progeny is hatched it devours its mother, and very often 

 the male parent as well, for that, too, aids in the process of 

 incubation. These last produce as many as three hundred 

 eggs, the others a smaller number. Spiders take three days 

 to hatch their eggs. They come to their full growth in 

 twenty-eight days. 



chap. 30. (25.) — SCORPIONS. 



In a similar manner to the spider, the land scorpion also pro- 

 duces maggots 90 similar to eggs, and dies in a similar manner. 

 This animal is a dangerous scourge, and has a venom like that 

 of the serpent ; with the exception that its effects are far 

 more 91 painful, as the person who is stung will linger for 

 three days before death ensues. The sting is invariably 

 fatal to virgins, and nearly always so to matrons. It is so 

 to men also, in the morning, when the animal has issued from 

 its hole in a fasting state, and has not yet happened to dis- 

 charge its poison by any accidental stroke. The tail is always 

 ready to strike, and ceases not for an instant to menace, so 

 that no opportunity may possibly be missed. The animal 

 strikes too with a sidelong blow, or else by turning the tail 



89 They copulate in a manner dissimilar to that of any other insects — 

 the male fecundates the female by the aid of feelers, which he introduces 

 into the vulva of the female situate beneath the anterior part of the 

 abdomen. 



90 Cuvier remarks, that the scorpion is viviparous ; but the young are 

 white when born, and wrapped up in an oval mass, for which reason they 

 may easily be taken for maggots or grubs. 



91 This must be understood of the scorpion of Egypt, Libya, and Syria. 

 The sting of that of the south of Europe is not generally dangerous. 



