26 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 
power of motion toward the claws beneath which it is situated, thus act- 
ing as a sort of thumb, which is used especially in grasping the spinning- 
work. ! 
In the armature of the legs must be reckoned also the calamistrum 
which characterizes the family Uloborine among the Orbitelariz, in com- 
mon with certain Ciniflonide. This is a double row of curved spines, 
placed upon the inside of the metatarsus of the hind pair of legs, in form 
not unlike the old fashioned “flyers” of a spinning wheel. (Fig. 15.) 
They are used for the flocculation of the threads as they pass from the 
spinning tubes, thus forming the peculiar cross lines which characterize the 
spinningwork of the above families, and serve the purpose of viscid beads. 
The second principal part of the spider is the abdomen. Among 
Orbweayers it assumes widely varying forms, being globular, 
ovate, subtriangular, cylindrical; sometimes flat, some- 
times convex above; on the ventral surface nearly 
flat or slightly convex. Thus, the face of a section 
cut transversely through the middle would, for the most part, 
be properly or approximately described as semicircular, except 
in the case of gravid females. The integument is soft, some- 
Fis. 15. Cala- times leathery; usually hairy, but not densely so, sometimes 
mistrum of F . 
Ciniflo. (Af) Naked and glossy. The organ is generally smooth, but in some 
wat)“, Species is marked with conical tubercles upon the base, and in 
upper row Some genera is bordered with sharp, hard, spinous processes, 
* spines; and in some is ridged or striated along the rear. The base 
row; ¢, the generally overhangs the cephalothorax as much as one-third or 
ae even one-half the length of that organ with which it is united 
by the pedicle, a short cartilaginous tube through which pass the organs 
of nutrition and circulation. 
In the female the size of the abdomen is large, as compared with the 
cephalothorax, a proportion which is greatly increased during the period 
of gestation. In the male spider the relative size of the abdo- 
The 
Abdomen. 
Age men is eyen less than, or is equal to the cephalothorax. The 
Hairs. markings upon the tergum are various, and are more or less 
uniform with every species, though subject to some decided 
specific variations. They are caused, when present, by a pigment under 
1 This arrangement gives a strong color of justification to the use of the word “hands” 
in the familiar quotation from Holy Scripture, Proverbs, xxx., 28: “The spider taketh hold 
with her hands, and is in king’s palaces.” In various palaces in Europe, and in many pub- 
lic buildings of America, I have neyer failed to observe spider's webs, usually some species of 
Lineweayer, whose occupants hung by their “hands” within their silken domiciles. I hesitate 
to think, notwithstanding the philological objection that the Hebrew myn’ (Semamith) 
means “lizard,” that Solomon had any other animal in view than the spider. The natural 
history of the text so exactly harmonizes with the habits of spiders, especially Lineweavyers 
and Orbweavers, that I have difficulty in believing that so careful an observer of nature as 
the Royal Proyerbialist could have used the above language concerning any other animal. 
