1897 THE MICROSCOPE. 7 
front feet that he had ever seen, and that as far as he 
could make them out, each foot had a lariat to lasso its 
prey and a piercer to kill it with, and he had labelled the 
slide “Tree spider with lariat and piercer.” Upon ex- 
amining the specimen I found that it had all the char- 
acteristics of aspider, and there was upon its palpi, or 
feelers what looked very much like a lariat coiled up 
ready for use, and sure enough there was a claw or piercer 
on each palpus, and as the palpi are used for conveying 
and preparing food it was reasonable to suppose that 
their use was in that direction. This would be the nat- 
ural inference of one who was unfamiliar with the strue- 
ure and habits of spiders. 
I proceeded to investigate the subject before accepting 
the above opinion, and in the Encyclopedia Brittanica, 
Art. Arachnida, I got some light upon the subject, and 
much to my surprise learned of the strange use of these 
peculiar organs. Later on I procured a little book en- 
titled: ‘The structure and habits of Spiders by J. H. 
Emerton,” and as it describes the use and operations of 
these organs fully | will quote verbatim, for the benefit 
of those who have not access to the books. 
“The peculiar organs by which the adult males and 
females can always be distinguished are in the males, the 
palpal organs, on the ends of the palpiand in the females 
the epygnum. “As the male spider gets nearly full 
grown the terminal joints of the palpi become swollen, 
and after the last moult the palpal organs are uncovered. 
The simplest form of palpal organ is found in the 
large mygalidate. It consists of a hard bulb drawn out 
to a point in which is asmall hole leading toa sac within. 
In most spiders the terminal joint is flattened, and has a 
hollow on the under side in which the palpal organ is 
partly concealed. The bulb is flattened to fit this hollow, 
and the point of it is prolonged into a distinct tube of 
