588 CLASS ix. 



ORDER VIII. Aramidea. 



Palps subfiliform, with last joint in males supplied with various 

 appendages, subservient to copulation. Abdomen covered with 

 skin continuous, mostly soft, constricted at the base or joined to 

 the cephalothorax by means of a petiole. Stigmata never more 

 than four, mostly only two. Respiration in all pulmonary, in some 

 tracheal at the same time. 



Family XV. Araneidea (Aranece LATR.) Characters of the 

 order also those of the single family. 



(Mandibles monodactylous, with terminal claw perforate, for the 

 excretion of a poisonous liquid. Four or six papilloe cylindrical or 

 conical at the inferior surface of abdomen, situated towards the 

 posterior part, perforated by very minute foramina for the passage 

 of a silky substance. Feet different in length, similar in form, 

 terminated by a double or triple claw.) 



The spiders. All these animals prepare from a silky substance 

 certain filaments with which they cover their eggs. Many, from 

 the same substance, form also webs and nets in which they capture 

 their prey. At the hind part of the body four, or in most species, 

 six spinarets are found, beset with fine tubules through which the 

 silky matter escapes. The secretion is effected in the form of an 

 adhesive fluid by means of glands, or tubes of very different form, 

 pear-shaped, glandular sacs united in groups, blind tubes convoluted 

 and ramified. See TREVIRANUS Ueber den innern Bau der Arachnid. 

 s. 4144, Tab. iv, v. figs. 4244 ; Verm. Schr. i. s. 11, 12, Tab. I. 

 fig. 4, H. MECKEL Arch. f. Anat. u. Physiol. 1846, s. 5056, Taf. 

 in. figs. 3845. 



The long threads that cover the fields or float in the air, especially 

 in the fall of the year, (Gossamer, Herfstdraden, fils de la Vierge, 

 Herbstgarn, der Jliegender Sommer) are considered by some writers 

 to be products of the atmosphere, or exhalations from plants ; the 

 chemical investigation of G. J. MULDER has proved that these 

 threads agree in composition with silk, and beyond doubt are the 

 work of spiders. 



See Natuttr-en Scheikwidig Archie/, and a postscript by my hand, in 

 which I have cited some works on this subject. LATBEILLB ascribes these 



