434 
TRANSFORMATIONS OF INSECTS. 
with a magnifying glass, he discovered that each resembled a round 
cupola of a chalky consistence, and that they were shut by a cover- 
lid which was conical in shape and ornamented with radiating 
grooves like the marks on a parasol. When the egg was broken a 
red pulp came forth, but when it was allowed to hatch a small 
spider partly lifted off the lid with its back and entered the world. 
The newly born creature was red, and was a larva ; it had six legs 
only, and crawled slowly, and did not increase in size. Duges 
noticed that after a while the larva seeks some crack in the 
ground near by, and becomes motionless. Then its skin comes 
off and forms a transparent shelter for the nymph or pupa, just 
as is the case in many insects. 
During the nymph condition the second metamorphosis takes 
place, and, after a lapse of a few days, an eight-legged spider bursts 
forth. The little Raphignathus is not much larger in the adult 
than in the larval condition, but its long legs enable it to move 
rapidly. It has an oval-shaped body with a projecting head, or 
rather, mouth, which looks like the head. There is a small eye of 
a dark red colour on either side of the front of the body. The 
spider lives upon the elder trees and sucks their sap. 
It is evident that there is a complete metamorphosis in this 
genus, and that the nymph or immobile pupa is quite as good an 
evidence of it as a chrysalis would be. 
Some species of Tetranychus , which resemble somewhat the 
spiders just noticed, do much mischief to lime trees, roses, 
acacias, and even to oaks, by irritating the leaves and destroying 
their powers of respiration. The spiders live on the under surface, 
and spread a very delicate web over the leaf, so as to form a shelter 
for a numerous colony. They are very small creatures, with oval- 
shaped bodies covered with long hairs, and ’their eight legs are not 
long ; they secrete a very fine web, which cannot be detected with 
the naked eye, and when it is finished they may be observed 
digging their suckers into the cellular tissue of the leaf and 
pumping up the liquid sap. The females may be observed laying 
large eggs, and a larva soon comes forth with six legs and a pel- 
lucid body. As soon as the leaves begin to fall, the larvae hide 
themselves under stones, and undergo their first metamorphosis 
into immobile pupae, probably during the spring-time. Another 
