104 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 
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specimens without one or more limbs, also with distorted and abbreviated 
limbs. I have frequently found males lacking several legs. The theory 
_. commonly adopted is that in most of these cases the loss has 
Moulting |. : a f “ ae end 
TR eere resulted from conflicts, perhaps among rival lovers in attendance 
‘ upon the same female. Something of loss may be attributed to 
this cause, but I am satisfied that in a much larger degree losses and mal- 
formations are due to the accidents of moulting. 
One example I may cite, the loss of two limbs experienced by a large 
tarantula which I had kept under observation. This spider lay upon its 
back in the araneary during part of the time of moulting, and on its side 
during the remainder thereof. The skin was cast by a succession of 
p movements of the body or parts of the body recurring at reg- 
Limbs —_ ular intervals, reminding one of labor pains among mammals. 
rlhde For some reason two of the legs refused to separate from the 
oulting. | 
skin, and after a prolonged struggle they were broken off at the 
coxee, and remained within the moult. (See Fig. 64.) One foot of another 
leg shared the same 
fate. ‘This moult oc- 
curred in the spring ; 
during the latter part 
of August of the same 
year the spider again 
moulted. The moult 
was a perfect cast of 
the animal, the skin, 
spines, claws, and the 
most delicate hairs 
showing, and their cor- 
responding originals 
appeared bright and 
clean upon the spider. 
Airing cncriitoR. When the castoff skin 
was removed the dissevered members were lacking thereon, but on the 
spider itself new limbs had appeared, perfect in shape but smaller than 
the corresponding ones on the opposite side of the body. The disseyered 
foot was also restored. The rudimentary legs had evidently been folded 
up within the coxs, and appeared at once after the moult, rapidly filling 
out in a manner somewhat analogous to the expansion of wings of insects 
after emerging. ! 
It is possible that the tarantula “ Leidy ” was too much exhausted by 
long previous fasting to endure the severe strain upon the organism in 
the act of moulting, although judging from the disjecta membra of the 
* See Proceedings Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, 1883, page 196. 
