SECOND EDITION 
The Pennsylvania State College 
Correspondence Courses in Nature Study 
Snsect 3Ufe 
LESSON NO. 5 
The Spider 
By George C. Butz 
O UR text on this occasion is spiders. It will afford a 
little digression from our regular study of insects, for 
the spider is not an insect. That should not surprise 
you, for we learned not long ago that the honey-bee is a 
typical insect, having two pairs of wings, three pairs of legs, 
a pair of compound eyes and a body divided into three parts 
— head, thorax and abdomen. Now let us apply this test 
to the spider before us and see if we should call it an insect. 
i. There are no wings. Did you ever see a spider with 
wings ? No. 
2. Instead of three pairs of legs, we find four pairs of 
jointed legs. (See Fig. 16.) Now, that number is never 
found in insects. Some larvae, or caterpillars, have eight 
pairs of legs, but we have seen that five pairs in such cases 
are fleshy false legs, that disappear when the larvae go into 
the next stage of their existence. 
3. We do not see the pair of compound eyes in the 
spider, but if we have a large spider and a magnifying glass 
we may ‘see several small eyes set firmly in the head 
arranged in two rows across the forehead. There are usu¬ 
ally eight of them, sometimes six, rarely four, and in a 
few cases only two. It is said, also, that certain spiders 
which dwell in dark caves are blind, having only rudimen¬ 
tary eyes. 
Copyrighted 1900, by The Pennsylvania State College 
OH 53 
. P5 
no. 5 
Copy 1 
Collected set. 
