CharT HEL, 
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AND STRUCTURE. 
I. 
THE order Aranezwe has given the name of the true spiders, which it 
embraces, to the class of invertebrates to which it belongs, Arachnida. This 
name, again, is due to that special function by which the spider 
is and has ever been popularly known. According to the Greek 
myth, Arachne was transformed into a spider by Pallas Minerva 
because she had boasted her superiority over that goddess in the use of the 
distaff. Hence the Greek name for spider (dpdyvy), arachne. The Eng- 
lish name is doubtless derived from the same function which led the un- 
happy Arachne upon her doom.! Spider is a corruption of ‘“spinder,” the 
spinning one. The word survives in a different form in the term “ spinster,” 
by which the virgin mistress of the distaff was 
commonly known in the days of our grand- 
sires. There is therefore a popular and phil- 
ological as well as natural fitness in the gen- 
eral classification of the order Araneze which 
we adopt after Thorell,? who in turn has 
substantially followed the arrangement of La- 
treille.® 
This classification is based upon the web 
making characteristics of the various groups 
and is as follows: The order may be 
Origin of 
the Name 
General qiyided into two principal groups, 
Classifi- 5 : 
cation, tHe Sedentary spiders and the Wan- 
dering spiders. The former group 
includes those whose habit it is to remain, for 
the most part, upon or within their webs and take their prey by means of 
STLAweS. The second group includes those which stalk or pursue their prey 
Fie. 1, An Orbweaver, Epeira gemma. 
a ——— —— 
1 See Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Chap. vi. The story is told in the first 150 lines. 
2 On European Spiders, by T. Thorell. Nova Acta Reg. Soe. Scientarium Upsaliensis. 
Upsala, 1869. 
8 Latreille: In Cuvier’s “Le Regne Animal,” edition 1817, Paris. Sedentaires (Sedentary), 
page 79; Vagabondes (Wandering), page 95; Territéles, page 79; Tubitéles, page 81; Inequi- 
teles (Retitelaris), page 84; Orbitdles, page 86; Laterigrades, page 91; Citigrades, page 95; 
Saltigrades, page 98. 
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