THE TURRET SPIDER. 
IS 
black or deep green brittle mineral mixed in with the quartz 
and feldspar. This is called hornblende and serves to distin¬ 
guish one variety of granite. Frequently other minerals are 
found with these but in smaller quantities and often in the 
form of crystals. These are classed as accessory minerals, and 
consideration of them must be left for a future article. 
The Turret Spider — Lycosa Fatifera. 
BY GEORGE E. BURNHAM. 
Many people are apt to believe that the more curious and re¬ 
markable objects of nature are to be found only in other lands, 
or, at the nearest, in distant parts of their own country. New 
Englanders, for example, read with interest of the Trap door 
Spider, found in Florida, California and other States, but have 
little or no idea that in our own 
fields and pastures may be found 
a true equivalent — the Turret 
Spider, or, as known to scien¬ 
tists, Lycosa fat if era. This 
arachnid, deriving its scientific 
designation from Avko$ (wolf) 
and fatifer (death-dealing) fully 
deserves its name— the death¬ 
dealing wolf. In wandering in 
the fields, any time from the day 
that the earth is yielded up to 
summer by Jack Frost, to the time when it is again locked in 
the embrace of winter, we may find the round shafts of Lycosa, 
tunneled to a depth of from six inches to a foot and a half, 
and surmounted by a turret of small twigs and grass, an inch or 
two in height, which is held together by a neatly spun network 
of finest silk. 
If we are interested in this “wolf ” spider, we will excavate 
one of these holes. After leaving the surface of the ground, we 
