208 SPIDERS NOT CLASSED WITH INSECTS. 



crabs, lobsters, &c.,or crustaceous animals, and those 

 now designated as insects. The position thus 

 allotted to them is just, from a consideration of their 

 physical structure. They have no antennae, those 

 flexile appendages somewhat resembling horns, 

 which you have a thousand times observed in the 

 butterfly ; and which have been supposed, by various 

 authors, to be organs of hearing, of smeU, of feel- 

 ing, 01 of some unknown sense, although the opinion 

 that they are organs of touch, is that now gene- 

 rally received. Spiders, on their liberation from the 

 egg, are perfectly formed, although very minute, and 

 they do not, like insects, undergo transformations. 

 Many of them breathe through lungs, and hence their 

 respiratory apparatus forms another ground of dis- 

 tinction. Still, as we are, in common parlance, in 

 the habit of speaking of them as insects, a shght 

 notice of their habits cannot be altogether cut of 

 place. 



They are all predaceous, and live upon small in- 

 sects, which they are able to overcome. This is 

 eflfected, however, in very diflPerent ways. Some spin 

 the webs, which are the abhorrence of all tidy house- 

 keepers ; others construct those nets, which, when 

 glittering in the morning sun, and bright as the dew- 

 drops by which they are surrounded, every one has 

 at some time or other regarded %vith admiration ; 



