INSECTS. 



Garden Spider 



Stag Beetle. 



Dragon Fly. 



The Squilla Mantis is entirely marine, and found abundantly in the Mediterranean. It has powerful 

 claws, which it uses for seizing its prey. Its gills are affixed in separate tufts to certain appendages of 

 the abdomen. 



The Garden Spider, like all others, has two divisions in its body. The fore part, comprising the head 

 and breast is separated from the hinder part. of the belly by a slender thread, which connects the two 

 parts. The fore part is covered with a hard shell, as well as the legs, while the hinder part is enclosed 

 by a supple, hairy skin. It has eyes all around the head, brilliant and keen, and two pincers on the fore 

 part of the head, rough, saw-toothed, and terminating in claws like a cat's. Just below the point of the claw 

 is a small hole, through which the creature emits a poison, which, though harmless to us, instantly destroys 

 its prey. It has other weapons of offence. Feeding on flies, and itself wingless they would escape, had it 

 not other means of self-help. Nature has supplied it with a mass of glutinous matter within its body and 

 five teats for spinning a thread out of this. It thus makes a web, where flies are wont to come, and provides 

 food in abundance. 



This description applies equally to the House and Garden Spider. The latter, however, works out of 

 doors instead of within doors. It spins a large quantity of its thread, which, floating in various directions, 

 sticks, from its glutinous quality, to some high plant or tree. The line being thus fastened, the Spider 

 passing down and up the same, till it has made it strong enough. Then walking along this line to a certain 

 point, here fastens another, and dropping thence to the ground it fastens to some solid body below. In this 

 way it goes on spinning till it has completed a web nearly square, within which it resides and watches for 

 whatever insect may get entangled therein. It is said, that some times it waits for weeks before entrapping 

 a single fly, for this, like many other insects, is extremely patient of hunger. When some insect gets en- 

 tangled, tV Spider, waiting to ascertain if it be completely meshed, walks forward, instils its venom and 

 kills it. Tbuc Slider is oviparous, the female laying from nine hundred to a thousand eggs in a season. 



The Blaps Mortisaga has an ashy-brown or black body and is wingless. It is a land animal, a vegetable 

 eater and a frequenter of dark places. It is very tenacious of life and has been known to live six months 

 foodless and transfixed by a pin. It is often found in dark, filthy places in and about our dwellings. 



The Whale Louse takes its name from its infesting the certacious tribe, as a parasite. These agreeable 

 creatures are sometimes so abundant on the surface of the whale, that the latter may be distinguished, at 

 some distance, bv the white color they impart to him 

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