266 ABTHROPODA [CH. 



The male, as is not uncommon amongst the Araneida, is 

 smaller than the female. The ovaries and testes lie in the abdomen 

 and have the form of a network of tubes, a form characteristic 

 of Arachnida; the spermatozoa are conveyed to the palpal organs 

 of the pedipalpi of the male and by them introduced into pouches, 

 the spermathecae of the female. The palpal organ is a bulb-like 

 outgrowth of the pedipalp or second appendage of the male. 

 The base of the bulb, the so-called haematodocha, is elastic and 

 marked by a spiral groove it is attached to the terminal joint 

 of the pedipalp in such a way that this joint partially ensheathes 

 it forming a so-called alveolus round it. The bulb and its base, 

 the haematodocha, contain a sac, the vesicular seminalis, which 

 opens by a narrow duct on the apex of the pointed extremity of 

 the bulb. This needle-like point is protected by a spiral outgrowth 

 from the bulb coiled round it which is called the conductor. 

 The male Spider deposits its seminal fluid on a web. It then 

 inserts into this fluid the point of the bulb, the blood pressure 

 in the pedipalp is then diminished and the diminished pressure 

 causes the fluid to be sucked up into the bulb. When the male 

 copulates the pressure in the haematodocha is increased and this 

 forces the spermatozoa out into the genital opening of the female. 



The eggs are fertilised before they are laid, which latter event 

 usually takes place in October, when they are enclosed in cocoons 

 of yellowish silk. The young are hatched out in the following 

 spring and at once begin spinning. By means of the minute 

 threads they secrete they weave a kind of nest about the size of 

 a cherry-stone which hangs suspended from some twig or leaf. 

 At the least disturbance the hundreds of young spiders in the nest 

 begin to disperse ; the spherical nest breaks up as into dust, but 

 when the disturbance is at an end the minute Spiders, so small 

 as to be almost invisible, re-assemble and again form their little 

 spherical nursery. 



The number of species of Spiders is very great and their habits 

 are very diverse and well worthy of study. 



Order II. Phalangida. 



The Phalangids (Gk. ^>aXayyiov, a venomous kind of spider) or 

 Harvestmen are in common talk usually classed with Spiders, but 

 they differ from the latter in having no waist, that is to say, the 

 abdomen is not separated from the prosoma by a constriction, and 



