Spiders are carnivorous; that is, they feed on animal food 
— principally insects. In this respect, they are largely dif¬ 
ferent from insects, because insects usually feed upon vege¬ 
table materials. How often have we heard or said, “ ‘ Will 
you walk into my parlor,’said the spider to the fly?” We 
may have amused ourselves by sitting beside a fresh spider 
web, and have seen a fly or other insect dart into the web, 
become entangled, and the spider make its sudden appear¬ 
ance, seizing the fly and receding with its game into the 
hiding-place, to sap out its life blood. It is commonly known 
that spiders feed upon insects, their near relatives, but it is 
not so generally known that some insects live on spiders. 
You have seen balls of mud placed against the rafters of 
barns. If you take one down, you will find that it has cells 
within filled with spiders apparently dead. This ball of mud 
is the nest of a wasp which feeds its young larvae with “ pre¬ 
served ” spiders. When a cell is constructed, an egg is laid 
in it, and small spiders are caught by the wasp and stung to 
paralyze them, then packed into the mud cell and sealed for 
the young larval wasp to feed upon after it is hatched. The 
paralyzed spiders do not -decay, but are preserved until the 
wasp larva is ready to eat it. 
The bird-spider is a large hairy spider of tropical America, 
which is strong enough to attack, and has a poison capable of 
killing, small birds. On the other hand, in India there is a 
bird called the spider-eater, that feeds upon spiders. Again, there 
are so-called crab-spiders, which resemble crabs in having the 
two front pairs of legs much longer than the rest — and some 
of them, like the crab, can walk sidewise better than forward. 
These spiders make no webs, but seize their prey by sud¬ 
denly dropping upon them. It is interesting to note here 
that there are crabs known as spider-crabs because of their re¬ 
semblance to spiders. They are called also sea-spiders, hav¬ 
ing legs long and slender, making the animal look like a 
great spider in the water. 
Several insects, because of their spider-like appearance, 
are named the spider-ant, the spider-bug and spider-fly. There 
is also a spider-monkey in Central America, having slender legs 
and a long tail, which affords it the means of passing rapidly 
through the tops of trees. You have heard of very minute 
red spiders on plants in houses. These are not true spiders, 
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