FOR THE USE OF TEACHERS. 



No. -17. 



Leaflet 



On Nature Study. 



Especially Adapted to the Use of Children in Schools 

 IN Rural Districts. 



PREPARED BY THE 



FACULTY OF PURDUE UNIVERSITY. 



ABOUT SPIDERS AND THEIR CURIOUS WAYS. 



(Condensed from Morse's First Book of Zoology by the 

 Editor of " School and Home") 



The spider is divided into two regions or parts. The hinder region 

 is called the ahdomen. The front part, to which the legs are attached, 

 is called the cephalo-thorax. C ephalo-thorax means head-chest, and is 

 thus called because the spider has its head and chest combined. 



The spider has four pairs of legs, instead of three pairs of legs, as in 

 the true insects. Projecting in front are a pair of jointed feelers called 

 palpi. These look very much like legs, and in very young spiders can 

 scarcely be distinguished from them. 



The mouth is armed with a pair of jaws which are attached above 

 the mouth and hang down in front, at the end of which are the 

 poison fangs. With these they are enabled to secure and kill the flies 

 and other insects upon which they feed. 



Directly behind these jaws are two smaller jaws, which aid in crush- 

 ing the food and arranging it for the mouth. 



The spider has eight eyes, situated on the front part of the cephalo- 

 thorax. They look like little black beads, and in large spiders can be 

 easily seen without the aid of a magnifying glass. 



The abdomen has little appendages at its hinder end called spin- 

 nerets, and from these the spider produces the thread with which it 

 builds its nests and nets, the nets being commonly called spiders' webs. 



Highly magnified, the spinnerets appear as blunt protuberances 

 arranged together in pairs, and capable of being contracted or 



