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T1IK UK PORT OF THE 



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SPIDERS. 



By Rev. Thomas W. Fyles, F.L.S., Levis, Quebec. 



Spiders are not generally regarded as pleasant objects. I think most people have 

 an antipathy to them. They dislike their appearance and their ways. At an entertain- 

 ment given in a village that I know, songs, recitations and tableaux were intermingled. 

 In one of the last named a little child was seen seated upon a hillock with a bowl of curds 

 in her lap. She had been instructed to behave prettily and to take no notice of the 

 people before her, but one thing she had not been prepared for. Suddenly a large toy- 

 spider with all its legs dangling was let down, by an elastic thread, before her. Her start 

 of unaffected terror was inimitable, and was warmly applauded, but of course this repre- 

 sentation of little Miss Muffett could not be repeated. Yes, children regard spiders with 

 fear, and older persons regard them with disgust ; and yet there is much in spiders that is 

 worth our notice, as I hope to show in the course of this paper. 



Spiders are not insects. They belong to a different order, the ArachnidcB, which 

 includes scorpions, ticks, mites <fec, as well as spiders. 



Fig. 43. 



The word Arachnidae is derived from the Greek Mythology. Arachne, as the story 

 runs, was the daughter of Idmon, a Lydian. She was a skilful spinner and weaver, and 

 was vain enough to enter into a contest with Minerva, who invented the arts Arachne 

 practised. The ambitious mortal was defeated, and in her vexation hanged herself, but 

 was turned by the gods into a spider. 



