SPIDERS. 365 



Diving Water-Spider. 



That spiders may be able to breathe under water, 

 we can well understand from their breathing like 

 amphibious reptiles by means of gills ; but there is an 

 aquatic spider (Argyroncta aquatica, Walckf.naer) 

 which is not contented, as a frog would be, with the 

 air furnished by the water, but actually carries down 

 a supply of air from the atmosphere to her subaqueous 

 nest. This spider does not like stagnant-water, but 

 prefers slow running streams, canals, and ditches, 

 where she may often be seen, in the vicinity of London 

 and elsewhere, living in her diving-bell, which shines 

 through the water, like a little globe of silver : her sin- 

 gular economy was first, we believe, described by 

 Clerck,* L. M. de Lignac,t and De Geer. 



"The shining appearance," says Clerck, "pro- 

 ceeds either from an inflated globule surrounding the 

 abdomen, or from the space between the body and the 

 water. The spider, when wishing to inhale the air, 

 rises to the surface, with its body still submersed, and 

 only the part containing the spinneret rising just to 

 the surface, when it briskly opens and moves its four 

 teats. A thick coat of hair keeps the water from ap- 

 proaching or wetting the abdomen. It comes up for 

 air about four times an hour or oftener, though 

 I have good reason to suppose it can continue with- 

 out it for several days together. 



" I found in the middle of May one male and ten 

 females, which I put into a glass filled with water, 

 where they lived together very quietly for eight days. 

 I put some duck-weed (Lemna) into the glass to 

 afford them shelter, and the females began to stretch 

 diagonal threads in a confused manner from it to the 

 sides of the glass about half-way down. Each of the 



* Aranei Suecici, Stockholm, 1757. 

 + Mem. dm Araign. Aciuat. 12mo Paris, 1799. 



