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INSECTS ARACHNIDA DIAGRAM 7. 



exactly knowing why. They cannot generally do much harm, but 

 several spiders have curved hooks at the mouth, which are 

 furnished, like the teeth of the viper, with a venomous 

 apparatus. However, our largest species cannot cause very 

 dangerous wouuds, but it is not the same in hot countries, where 

 they are found as large as a mouse. The spider is one of those ani- 

 mals the habits of which are very interesting to those who like to 

 observe them closely, and nothing is easier. To seize their prey, 

 they spin nets, but they do not produce their silk by the 

 mouth as in insects. It is by the extremity of the abdomen 

 that the spider spins. When it is about to spin its web 

 anywhere, it experiences great difficulty in attaching the first 



Spider's web. 



threads. Then the work proceeds quickly enough, and when 

 it is not interfered with, the web is perfectly regular. It often 

 makes a shelter near it in addition, where it watches for the 

 prey which may become entangled. As soon as a fly has touched 

 the web, the spider darts out, seizes it, and sucks its juices ; then 



