284 
ARACHNIDES 
the form of a hook or eai'- picker, without the smallest visible opening. 
Although Muller and others were mistaken when they placed the 
male organs of certain Entomostraca upon two of their antennse, it 
is very certain that the parts considered as analogous to them in the 
Araneides are very different from those observed on the antennae of 
those Crustacea, and that if we refuse to admit of their exercising 
this function, it is impossible to conceive of their use *. 
According to the experiments of Audebert, who has given us a 
history of the Monkeys worthy of the talents of that great painter, 
it is certain that a single fecundation is sufficient for several succes- 
sive generations, but that with them, as with all Insects and other 
analogous classes, the ova are sterile without a union of the sexes. 
Their nuptial season in France lasts from the latter end of summer 
till the beginning of October. The ova first laid are frequently 
hatched before the termination of autumn: the others remain in 
statu quo during the winter. The females of certain species of 
Lycosa have been observed to tear open the egg-sac when the young 
ones were about to issue from the ovum. The latter then mount on 
the back of their mother, where they remain some time. Other 
female Araneides carry their cocoons under the abdomen, or remain 
near them and watch them. The two posterior feet of some of the 
young ones are not developed until several days after they have been 
hatched. Some, during the same period, live together, and appear 
to spin in common. Their colouring is then more uniform, and the 
young naturalist may easily err in multiplying their species. One of 
our collaborators for the Encyclopedie Methodique, M. A. Lepelletier 
of Saint- Fargeau, has observed that these animals, as well as the 
Crustacea, possess the faculty of I’eproducing a lost limb. 
I have ascertained that a single wound from a moderate sized 
Araneid will kill our common Fly in a few minutes. It is also certain 
that the bite of those large Araneides of South America, which are 
there called Crab-Spiders, and are placed by \as in the genus Mygale, 
kills the smaller vertebrated animals, such as Humming-Birds, 
Pigeons, &c., and produces a violent fever in Man ; the sting of 
some species in the south of France has even occasionally proved 
fatal. We may, therefore, without believing all the fabulous stories 
of Baglivi and others respecting the bite of the Tarantula, mistrust 
the Araneides, and particularly the larger ones. 
Various insects of the genus Sphex, Lin., seize upon these Spiders, 
])ierce them with their sting, and transport them into holes where 
they have deposited their eggs, as a source of food for their young. 
* They must at all events be organs of exeitation. 
