ARTICULATA. ARACHNIDA. 



ORDER I. PULMONARIA * 



THE first and most important Order breathes air 

 by means of hollow sacs which open by little aper- 

 tures beneath the body. There are always eight 

 legs. The head is furnished with two organs which 

 seem to answer to the antennce of Insects, but which 

 terminate in a poison fang, used in killing prey, and 

 in many cases so formed as to act like pincers. 



FAM. I. ARANEAD^E.f SPIDERS. 



" No animals fall more universally under our ob- 

 servation than the Spiders : we see them every where 

 fabricating their snares, or lying in wait for their 

 prey, in our houses, in the fields, on the trees, shrubs, 

 flowers, grass, and in the earth ; and if we watch 

 their proceedings, we may sometimes see them, with- 

 out the aid of wings, ascend into the air, where, 

 carried by their web as by an air-balloon, they can 

 elevate themselves to a great height."J Their dis- 

 tinctive characters are as follow : their palpi are 

 small, without any pincers ; their abdomen is joined 

 to the chest only by a slender footstalk, but is not 

 divided into segments; this part is covered with a 

 soft skin. At the end of the body are several little 

 prominences like teats, each pierced with hundreds of 



* Pulmo, Lat. the lungs. t Aranea, a Spider. 



J Kirby. 



