THE ANIilAL LIFE OF THE GROUP. 409 



disturbed are not seen in the daytime. Decaying vegetable matter is supposed 

 to furnish them with their principal supply of food. 



Sand-Hoppers. 



The species of sand-hoppers belong to a family i-'*" in the order Amphipoda, 

 to which order also belong the fresh-water shrimps. By some they may be 

 mistaken for the pill-bug. Though they are distantly allied to the pill-bug, 

 since they are true Crustacea, they are easily identified as belonging to a dif- 

 ferent family, as they have the body narrowed and flattened from side to side, 

 instead of broad and flat, and all proceed by a hopping movement when 

 alarmed. The common sand-hoppers live near the edge of the sea and are 

 aquatic in habit. There are species, however, which are found high up in the 

 mountains in damp situations and in the cups at the base of the leaves of a 

 number of plants such as the ieie vine, ki plant and in similar places. Three 

 species belonging to two genera have been reported from the mountains of 

 Oahu, and there are doubtless species occurring on all the islands of the group. 



Spiders, ]\Iites and Ticks. 



Zoologists usually i)lace the spiders together in an order'-" of the 

 Arthropods, where, with certain other orders, including such animals as the 

 scorpions, the harvest-men or "iladdy-long-legs, " the mites and ticks and 

 similar creatures, they unite to form a class. '3- This class is made up of sev- 

 eral well-marked orders, but the spiders are generally taken as the type for the 

 group, as they show clearly the difference between the class to which the 

 insects '■'" belong, and the class which they represent. There are several im- 

 portant characteristics common to the spiders, among them the possession of 

 eight legs, the absence of antenna' or feelers, and the division of the body into 

 two main divisions,'^* that at once separate them from the insects, which have, 

 as a rule, six legs, antenna' and the body divided into three parts, namely, the 

 head, thorax, and abdomen. 



House-Spiders. 



While there are more than a hundred species of spiders in Hawaii, many 

 of them spinning webs, they are for the most part so small and inconspici;ous 

 that they rarely attract the special notice of the housewife. The jumping- 

 spiders i*® and the big brown house-spider,'^® a member of the family of 

 hunting spiders,'-''^ and the well-known garden spider should, however, be men- 

 tioned as exceptions to the rule. 



The jumping-spiders are small or medium size with a short blackish body 

 and short stout legs. They occur on plants, fences and about houses, and 

 attract attention by their peculiar appearance, bright marking and quick- 

 jumping movements that differ from those of the web-weaving and hunting 



27 



