ARACHNIDES—TARANTULA. 797 
If this bag be separated from her by any accident, she employs all her assi- 
duity to stick it again in its former situation, and seldom abandons her 
treasure but with her life. When the young ones are excluded from their 
shells, within the tag, they remain for some time in their confinement, until 
the female, instinctively knowing their maturity, bites open their prison, 
and sets them free. But her parental care does not terminate with their 
exclusion ; she receives them upon her back for some time, until they have 
strength to provide for themselves, when they leave her, never to return, and 
each begins a separate manufactory of its own. The young ones begin to 
spin when they can scarcely be discerned ; and prepare for a life of plunder 
before they have strength to overcome. 
Of this animal there are several kinds, slightly differing from each other 
either in habits or conformation. The water spider! is the most remarka- 
ble of the number. This insect resembles the common spider in its appear- 
ance, except that its hinder part is made rather in the shape of a ninepin 
than a ball. They differ in being able to live as well by land as water, and 
in being capable of spinning as well in one element as the other. Their 
appearanze under water is very remarkable; for, though they inhabit the 
bottom, yet they are never touched by the element in which they reside, but 
are enclosed in a bubble of air, that, like a box, surrounds them on every 
side. This bubble has the bright appearance, at the bottom, of quicksilver ; 
and within this they perform their several functions of eating, spinning, and 
sleeping, without its ever bursting, or in the least disturbing their operations. 
LAE TARANTULA? 

Is a native of Apulia, in Italy. Its body is three quarters of an inch long, 
and about as thick as a man’s little finger; the color is generally an olive 
oruwn, variegated with one that is more dusky; it has eight legs and eight 

— 

1 Argyroneta aquatica, Lat. ® Lycosa tarentula, Lar. 
67* 
