354 ^-^^^ ^tf^ of the Spider 



from the day when it left the ^^^%, we could find 

 no words strong enough to express our in- 

 creduUty. Now this paradox of activity main- 

 tained without the stay of food is realized by 

 the Clotho Spider and others. 



I believe I have made it sufficiently clear that 

 the young Lycosae take no food as long as they 

 remain with their mother. Strictly speaking, 

 doubt is just admissible, for observation is needs 

 dumb as to what may happen earlier or later 

 within the mysteries of the burrow. It seems 

 possible that the repleted mother maj'^ there 

 disgorge to her family a mite of the contents of 

 her crop. To this suggestion the Clotho under- 

 takes to make reply. 



Like the Lycosa, she lives with her family; 

 but the Clotho is separated from them by the 

 walls of the cells in which the little ones are 

 hermetically enclosed. In this condition, the 

 transmission of solid nourishment becomes im- 

 possible. Should any one entertain a theory of 

 nutritive humours cast up by the mother and 

 filtering through the partitions at which the 

 prisoners might come and drink, the Labyrinth 

 Spider would at once dispel the idea. She dies 

 a few weeks after her young are hatched ; and 



