650 Wiarvels of the Universe 
Wels GAUNIDIGN SIPIUD IE] 
BW IB Wo GIINTIA, IIR MiLS 
WHEN it is borne in mind that out of the six hundred kinds of Spiders to be found in Great Britain 
the Garden Spider and.its immediate relations are the only ones that spin the beautiful web with 
which we are all acquainted, is it to be wondered at that we classify the little animal amongst the 
marvels and wonders of the universe? This little Arachnid being so well known, it is useless to 
append an illustration ot the entire animal, and our article is therefore entirely illustrated with 
photographs of the less-known marvels of the creature’s organization. 
In popular estimation the Spiders are insects, an error largely due to the fact that they are small. 
In former days, to be small was considered to be of little account, and, therefore, all sorts of small 
Photo by] [H. J. Shepstone. 
BIRD OF PARADISE PLANT. 
A nearer view of a single cluster of fowers springing from the sheath that protects the buds. 
animals of great variety in structure and organization were bundled together in a sort of lumber 
room with a door labelled “ Insects,” and left for modern investigators to sort them out and label 
them more accurately. Ifa beetle, a bee, a fly, butterfly, or other fully-developed insect, be examined 
superficially, it will be seen to be distinctly divided (or imsected) into three chief regions—the head, 
the thorax or chest, and the abdomen or hind-body. The head bears antenne or feelers, the mouth- 
parts and the compound and simple eyes. To the thorax, or middle region, the six legs (always six) 
and the wings are attached. [Compare an insect with a Spider, and some radical differences will 
be obvious at a glance.| The Spider is divided into two regions only, the foremost being a con- 
solidation, so to speak, of the head and thorax into one, which bears the mouth-parts, the more 
numerous but all s7mple eyes and the eight walking limbs. The hind-body of the insect is made 
up of a series of ring-like segments; but in the Spider it is one and undivided. Another, and 
more important, point as showing the essential separateness of the two classes represented by a 
Spider and an insect is development. The insect, after leaving the egg, has to pass through two 
