TRAPDOOR SPIDERS. 



343 



holss in the ground, and sometimes conceals the opening by 

 aovering it with a few dead leaves. Our largest spider is 

 Nepliila plumipes of the Southern States. The common 

 garden spider is Epeira vulgaris Hentz. It lives about 



Fig. 315.— Development of the Spider.—^, worm-like stage ; B, primitive band ; 

 C, the same more advanced, with rudiments of limbs. 



houses and in gardens ; its geometrical web is very regular. 

 The large trap-door spider (Mygale) has four lung-sacs in- 

 stead of two, as in the other spiders, and only two pairs of 

 spinnerets. Mygale Henzii G-irard 

 inhabits the Western plains and 

 Utah ; Mygale avicvMria Linn, of 

 South America is known to seize 

 small birds, and suck their blood. 

 There are probably about six or 

 eight hundred species of spiders 

 in North America ; their colors 

 are often brilliant, and sometimes, 

 from the harmony in their colora- 

 tion with that of the flowers in 

 which they hide, or the leaves on 

 which they may rest, elude the 

 grasp of insectivorous birds. 



In their instincts and reasoning 

 power, spiders are quite on a level with the insects, 

 proved by their nest- and web-constructing abilities. 



Fig. 810. —Embryo Spider, still 

 more advanced. This and Fig. 315 

 after Claparede. 



as 



