INSECT WEAPONS AND TOOES 193 



which serve various purposes in the insect's daily 

 Hfe-work. 



And here I will leave the insect world for a 

 moment, to illustrate the mouth-weapons of the 

 common spider. When a hungry spider attacks 

 a fly as big as or larger than itself, it exhibits a 



Teeth Teeth 



Fi£^. 127. Mouth of a spirh'i-, showing poison fans^s arid teeth 



confidence in its own powers which is usually 

 justified by results. Eook at the illustration of 

 the spider's mouth in Fig. 127, and note the 

 "business" ends of its chief weapons. These 

 two terrible fangs, opening out from the mouth, 

 are connected with a poison duct in the head of 

 the creature. The method of the spider is first 

 to poison his prey, and then to crush its 

 victim with the apparatus below the fangs, 

 which the illustration well shows ; after which 



N 



