Page:The spiders of the northern states-1901.djvu/7

 pincers on the end of their feelers. The true spiders (Avanetna) have the rings grouped in two parts, the head and chest part are grown together and the body part distinctly separated. The rings are skin-like, soft and but slightly visible. They mostly have eight, but sometimes, six simple eyes, and differ from all other animals by having several spinning warts at the end of their bodies and two poison conducting fang claws in their jaws.

Their poison fangs, their activity by night and their somewhat disagreeable appearance and move- ments have caused a prejudice against spiders which they do not deserve. They are harmless and really useful as destroyers of numberless flies and mosquitoes. Their bite is truly poisonous to insects; whether also, to the higher animals or man, is not surely known. The peculiar mouth parts of spiders make it impossible for most of them to bite large objects. In regard to the poisonous effect on insects, it is nec- essary only to observe a cricket on a grass spiders’ web. The cricket may be several times the size and strength of the spider; a few seconds after the first bite it is as helpless as a mouse in a cat’s paws.

An insect develops through several forms, often very unlike the adult, as, for example, the egg, caterpillar, pupa state must come before the perfect, full-grown butterfly evolves. None but the bee and

wasp family seem to take any interest in their offspring more than laying their eggs in places where their grubs may feed when hatched.

The spider, however, packs her eggs in a weather-proof bag, which she hangs up in her web or carries about with her. The young come out of the egg, not as grubs, but as perfect, little spiders, grow with age, and may become several years old. The mother carries her young on her back, or builds a tent for them and takes care of them till they are large enough to shift for them-

selves, somewhat as a hen does for her chickens.

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