A.MKIM' AN BFIDKBf AXD THKIR HPI.VNIXGVVORK. 



of motion toward the, claws beneath which it is situated, thus act- 

 ing as a sort of thumb, which is used especially in grasping the spinning- 

 work.' 



In the armature of the legs must be reckoned also the calamistrum 

 which characterizes the family IJloborinse among the Orbitelarise, in com- 

 mon with certain ('iniflonida;. This is a double row of curved spines, 

 placed upon the inside of the metatarsus of the hind pair of legs, in form 

 not unlike the old fashioned "flyers" of a spinning wheel. (Fig. 15.) 

 Tiny an; used for the flocculation of the threads as they pass from the 

 spinning tubes, thus forming the peculiar cross lines which characterize the 

 spinningwork of the above families, and serve the purpose of viscid beads. 

 The second principal part of the spider is the abdomen. Among 

 Orbweavers it assumes widely varying forms, being globular, 

 ovate, subtriangular, cylindrical ; sometimes flat, some- 

 A times convex above; on the ventral surface nearly 



' flat or slightly convex. Thus, the face of a section 

 cut transversely through the middle would, for the most part, 

 be properly or approximately described as semicircular, except 

 in the case of gravid females. The integument is soft, some- 

 Fia.ift.caiu- t.j, nrs leathery; usually hairy, but not densely so, sometimes 



inistriuii of / ' J J) , * , 



finiii... , \r naked and glossy. The organ is generally smooth, but in some 



' species is marked with conical tubercles upon the base, and in 



upper row some genera is bordered with sharp, hard, spinous processes, 



u* T,"v*r an( l m some i g ridged or striated along the rear. The base 



I.MV : o, the generally overhangs the cephalothorax as much as one-third or 



even one-half the length of that organ with which it is united 



by the pedicle, a short cartilaginous tube through which pass the organs 



of nutrition and circulation. 



In the female the size of the abdomen is large, as compared with the 

 oophalotliorax. a proportion which is greatly increased during the period 

 of gestation. In the male spider the relative size of the abdo- 

 men is even less than, or is equal to the cephalothorax. The 

 Colored . 



Hairs markings upon the tergum are various, and are more or less 



uniform with every species, though subject to some decided 

 specific variations. They are caused, when present, by a pigment under 



1 This arrangement gives a stronur color of justification to the use of the word "hands" 

 in the familiar quotation from Holy Scripture, Proverbs, xxx., 28: "The spider taketh hold 

 with her hands, and is in king's palaces." In various palaces in Europe, and in many pub- 

 lic buildings of America, I have never failed to observe spider's webs, usually some species of 

 l.inoweaver. whoso occupants hung by their "hands" within their silken domiciles. I hesitate 

 to think, notwithstanding the philological objection that the Hebrew D'OOff (Semamith) 

 moans "lizard." that Solomon had any other animal in view than the spider. The natural 

 history of the text so exactly harmonizes with the habits of spiders, especially Lineweavers 

 ami Orbweavws, that I have difficulty in believing that so careful an observer of nature as 

 the Royal IVoverbialist could hare used the above language concerning any other animal. 



