ANIMAL LIFE AND THE MICROSCOPE 



hole in her jaw ; the poison causes paralysis and the 

 victim struggles no more. 



The only excuse we can make for spending so 

 much time with the spiders is that they are of the 

 greatest interest to the microscopist. Returning to 

 our friend the garden spider we must examine the 

 spinning organs, known as spinnerets. These are to 

 be found near the tip of the abdomen on the under 

 side. There are six pairs in all in the garden spider 

 but the middle pair are shorter than the others and, 

 in consequence, not easily seen. The tips of the 

 fleshy little spinnerets should be highly magnified 

 and we shall notice that the structure of the tips 

 differs in each pair of spinnerets. On the foremost 

 pair, these is a fairly large projection and numerous 

 small ones; on the middle pair three large projec 

 tions and many smaller ones, whilst on the hind pair, 

 in addition to the small projections there are five 

 large ones. The large projections are called spigots 

 and the small ones are known as spools; from the 

 former is derived the strong silk of the web, from 

 the spools the fine threads issue. 



On the underside of our garden spider there ii 

 a dark patch and, just in front of this dark spot, arc 

 a pair of slits. These we must open up very care 

 fully, in a dead specimen of course, and within, ij 

 we have succeeded in our dissection, we shall se- 

 from fifteen to twenty little flaps resembling th 

 leaves of a book, in fact they are known as lun 

 books and, by means of them, the spider breathes 



One more word and we must leave the spiders j 



116 I 



