358 INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS. 



some particles of slime and sand adhering to the 

 glass, it triumphantly gained the brim, which it began 

 to perambulate with an apparent air of proud exul- 

 tation.* This insect is figured at 6, page 382. 



The process of cleaning and brushing the legs, as 

 birds are seen to preen their feathers, is, however, 

 the most remarkable, though, perhaps, but seldom 

 taken notice of among spiders. The same process, as 

 we have recently discovered, is employed by the Pha- 

 langia. The apparatus for this is admirably con- 

 trived. In the common garden geometric spider 

 (Epeira diadem*), the teeth are used as a comb, 

 the smooth mandible being employed to hold down 

 the limb while it is slowly drawn between the teeth, 

 to free it from flue and dust. In some other species, 

 instead of smooth teeth, there is a thick-set brush 

 of hairs, which is used in the same manner, and 

 must be a still more efficient instrument. The former, 

 if we do not mistake, chiefly occurs among the 

 geometric spiders, whose webs are meshed and thin ; 

 while the brush prevails among those which weave 

 thick webs, such as the red spider (Dysdera ery- 

 thrina, WALCKENAER), which we found in the cre- 

 vice of a chalk rock near Erith, in Kent, but which is 

 by no means common in Britain, though abundant in 

 France. We kept this one for some time in a glass, 

 and observed that it spent the greater part of its 

 time in brushing its legs. The eyes are placed in 

 form of a horse-shoe. | 



It must have struck those who have visited a 

 menagerie of wild animals, that, even while they are 

 standing in their cages, they frequently throw their 

 heads, and also their bodies, into a sort of oscillatory 

 movement, evidently not for the purpose of getting 

 through the bars, but to supply the place of their 

 natural exercise which confinement prevents them 



*J. R. tj. R. 



