210 EVENINGS AT THE MICROSCOPE. 



body, and limbs ; the multitude of small bead-like joints 

 into which the foot (tarsus) is divided ; and in particular 

 the hammer-like form of the modified antennae, which bend 

 abruptly downwards, and have pincer-tips. These are 

 highly curious, and you may examine them at your lei- 

 sure ; but for the present we will return to our Spiders. 



Ever since those mythic times when Arachne contended 

 with Minerva for supremacy in needlework, and was 

 changed, for her pains, into a spider, our little spinners 

 have been famous (Spider = ^p-inne) for their matchless 

 achievements in thread. And still their industrious art is 

 plied everywhere around us ; in our chambers, in our 

 windows, in our cellars, in our walls, in our gardens, in 

 waste and desert places, and even under water. But you 

 shall hear what Professor Owen says on the degree and 

 mode in which Spiders exercise their singular secreting 

 faculty, which "varies considerably in the different species. 

 Some, as the Clubionce, line with silk a conical or cylin- 

 drical retreat, formed, perhaps, of a coiled-up leaf, and 

 having an outlet at both extremities, from one of which 

 may issue threads to entrap their prey. Others, as the 

 Segestria, fabricate a silken burrow of five or six inches in 

 length, in the cleft of an old wall. The Mygale cemetaria 

 lines a subterraneous burrow with the same substance, and 

 manufactures a close-fitting trap-door of cemented earth, 

 lined with silk, and so attached to the entry of the burrow 

 as to fall down and cover it by its own weight, and which 

 the inmate can keep close shut by means of strong attached 

 threads. 



" The arrangement of Spiders by Mr. Walckenaer into 

 families, characterised by their habits, places the principal 

 varieties of their webs in a very concise point of view. 



" The Cursores, Saltatores, and Laterigrad, make no 

 webs : the first catch their prey by swift pursuit ; the 

 second spring upon their prey by insidious and agile 

 leaps ; the third run, crab-like, sideways or backwards, 



