SPIDERS. 



119 



Ac7-oso7na, a tropic:il genus licli in species, the abdomen is prolonged into a long 

 liorn on either side. Nephila has a long cylindrical abdomen. iV. plumipes is found 

 in the Southern States. The sexes differ greatly in size. ^ ^ ^ 



Van Hasselt has made some interesting comparisons of *-' C' O o 



the relative proportions of the two sexes, and says that 

 the same dimensions applied to the human species would 

 result in a man six feet in height and weighing 150 

 pounds, married to a woman from seventy-five to ninety 

 feet in height, and weighing 200,000 pounds ! 



Most of the Epeiridffi are brightly colored, and make 

 no attempt at concealment when in the web. Others 

 have odd shapes and colors, and hang in the web in such 

 jjositions that they look like anything but animals. Some 

 species draw up their legs against their triangular abdo- 

 mens, and look like bits of bark fallen into the web. 

 Some are long and slender, and when at rest, either in 

 the web or out, lay their legs close together before and 

 behind their bodies, so as to look like straws. Others have oddly shaped abdomens, 

 under which the rest of the body is partly concealed. 



The Theeidiid^ is the largest family of Spiders. Its members have the first pair 

 of legs the longest. The webs are more or less irregular in shape, and the species 

 always Kve upside down, hanging by their feet from the under side of the webs. They 



Fn>. 171. — Epfdra diadema, cross- 

 spider ; above, the arrangement of 

 the eyes. 



Fig. 172. — Acrosorna arcuafa. 



are almost invariably found in shady places. Theridion vulgare, a species which varies 

 greatly in color, from a cream white to a livid brown or plumbeous, is very common in 

 houses, and with Tegenaria chmestAca shares the common name, house-spider. In Phol- 

 cus the legs arc very long and slender. Erigone embraces some of the smallest 

 spiders known. To this family belongs also the blind genns AnthroMa, a species of 

 which is not uncommon in Mammoth Cave. 



