CHAPTER II. 



EATING AND BITING. 



The spiders are best known and hated as 

 animals that bite. The biting apparatus is 

 shown in Fig. 14, which represents the head 

 and mandibles of Epeira vulgaris, seen from in 

 front. When not in use, the claw is closed up 

 against the mandible between the rows of 

 teeth ; but, when the jaws are opened to bite, 

 the claws are turned outward, so that their 

 points can be stuck into any thing between the 

 jaws. Fig. 15 is the claw still more enlarged, 

 showing a little hole near the point at a, out of 

 which is discharged the secretion of a gland in 

 the head. Fig. 5, «. The ordinary use of the 

 mandibles is for killing and crushing insects, so 

 that the soft parts can be eaten by the spider ; 

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