678 



The Living Animals of the World 



creatures, studded with strong spines. They are allied to the Garden-spiders, but confined to 



the tropics. .... , . 



The Spotted Spider is a very beautiful species, often seen among cases of mixed insects, etc., 

 sent from India It is black, with brown abdomen and numerous yellow spots, and about U inch 

 lon^ ■ the body is much longer than broad, and the legs are about twice as long as the body. 

 Attempts have been made to turn spider-silk to commercial purposes, but the great 

 difficulty is that spiders are so voracious and cannibalistic in their propensities that they 

 cannot be kept in captivity, for they will kill and eat each other as long as there are any 

 left, to the very last spider. The silk of some of the large tropical spiders is sometimes 

 strong enough to cause a man much annoyance when riding through the woods, striking up 

 against his iace, and sometimes knocking off his hat. 



The last section includes the Mites and Ticks, most of which are small or microscopic. 



The whole body forms one 

 round or oval mass, with 

 scattered hairs, and eight 

 legs, though most mites 

 have only six legs when 

 young, while the Plant- 

 mites have only four. The 

 largest mites are those 

 called Ticks. There are 

 one or two small British 

 species which are some- 

 times sufficiently trouble- 

 some ; but in many warm 

 countries they are a far 

 more serious nuisance, 

 lurking on the herbage, 

 and fixing their proboscis 

 in the skin of any passing 

 man or animal, and retain- 

 ing their hold till they are 

 gorged wdth blood, and 

 allow themselves to drop 

 off by their own weight. 



Among the smaller 

 mites some species are 

 parasitic on warm-blooded animals, causing itch, mange, and other diseases ; while many infest 

 insects, esj^ecially humble-bees and dung-beetles. These are of considerable size for mites ; and 

 there are other bright scarlet species which are sometimes found on saw-flies, dragon-flies, etc. 

 ]\Iany feed on decaying animal or vegetable matter, such as the Cheese-mite and the Sugar-mite, 

 the former being a very fiimiliar and interesting microscopic object ; and others, again, are very 

 destructive to plants, like the small scarlet mite known in greenhouses as the Eed Spider. 



Among the plant-feeding mites are the four-legged Gall-mites, which produce galls or 

 other excrescences on the plants which they infest. 



Mites are probably almost as varied in their forms and habits and as interesting objects of 

 study as insects or spiders ; but the group is somewhat neglected by naturalists, owing to the 

 small size of most of the species, and the consequent difficulty of collecting and preserving them. 



Centipedes and Millipedes. 



These are creatures with long, worm-like bodies, composed of a number of rings or segments, 

 each provided with one or two pairs of legs. They have one pair of antennae, like insects, but 



I'holo bn EkjkUti. 



SPANISH TARANTULA. 



So called because the bite of an Italian .sjiecies was supposed to produce a fit of nielancbolia, wliicii 

 could only be cured by tbe tune known as the " taientella." 



