THE WATER SPIDER. 



667 



by raising them, may issue at will from the tent, and re-enter. When it quits its domicile 

 to proceed to the chase, it has little cause to fear that its habitation should be invaded, 

 for itself alone possesses the secret of the impenetrable emarginations, and the key to 

 those by which it can introduce itself. . 



When the young ones are in a state to do without maternal cares, they take their 

 departure and proceed to establish elsewhere their particular habitations, while the mother 

 dies in her own tent. Thus the last is at once the cradle and the tomb of the Uroctea." 



The colour of the Clotho is chestnut-brown on the cephalothorax and black on the 

 abdomen, which is marked with five round, yellowish spots. It is rather less than half 

 an inch in length. 



curious and interesting WATER SPIDER is 

 now far better known than was formerly the case, 

 as the numerous aquaria that have been established 

 over the kingdom have tended to familiarize us 

 with this as well as with many other inhabitants 

 of the water. 



This creature leads a strange life. Though 

 a really terrestrial being, and needing to respire 

 atmospheric air, it passes nearly the whole of its 

 life in the water, and, for the greater part of its 

 time, is submerged below the surface. To a lesser 

 degree, several other spiders lead a somewhat 

 similar life, sustaining existence by means of the 

 air which is entangled in the hairs which clothe 

 the body. Their submerged existence is v however, 

 only accidental, while in the Water Spider it forms 

 the constant habit of its life. 



Like the pirate-spider, this creature is pur- 

 posely covered with hairs, which serve to entangle 

 a large comparative amount of atmospheric air, 

 but it has other means which are not possessed by 

 the species already described. It has the power 

 of diving below the surface, and carrying with it a 

 very large bubble of air that is held in its place 

 by the hind-legs ; and in spite of this obstacle to 

 its progress, it can pass through the water with 

 tolerable speed. 



The strangest part in the economy of this 

 creature is, that it is actually hatched under water, 

 and lies submerged for a considerable time before 

 it ever sees the land. At some little depth the 

 mother spider spins a kind of egg or dome-shaped 

 cell, with the opening downwards. Having made 

 this chamber, she ascends to the surface, and there 

 charges her whole body with air, arranging her 

 hind-legs in such a manner that the great bubble 

 cannot escape. She then dives into the water, 

 proceeds to her nest, and discharges the bubble 

 into it. A quantity of water is thus displaced, 

 and the upper part of the cell is filled with air. 

 She then returns for a second supply, and so proceeds until the nest is full of air. 



In this curious domicile the spider lives, and is thus able to deposit and to hatch her 

 eggs under the water without even wetting them. The reader will have noticed the exact 

 analogy between this sub-aquatic residence and the diving-bell, now so generally employed. 

 As to the spider itself, it is never wet; and though it may be seen swimming rapidly about 



WATER SPIDER. Argtjronetra 



