Elementary Zoology, Second EditionKellogg, Vernon L. (Vernon Lyman)
Science
Elementary Zoology, Second Edition
Kellogg, Vernon L. (Vernon Lyman)
Animals; Zoology
The spiders have the abdomen distinctly set off from the
cephalothorax. The eyes (fig. 93) vary in number and arrangement, the
mandibles are large, each being composed of two parts, a basal
hair-covered part, the falx, and a terminal smooth, shining, slender,
sharp-pointed part, the fang, which is movably articulated with the
falx (fig. 93). In the falx is a poison-sac from which poison flows
through the hollow fang and out at its tip. The legs vary in relative
length in different spiders, and each is made up of seven joints. The
spinnerets (fig. 94), which are situated at the tip of the abdomen,
are six in number (a few spiders have only four), and are like little
short fingers. They have at their tips many fine little spinning-tubes
from each of which a fine silken thread issues when the spider is
spinning. These many fine threads fuse as they issue to form a single
strong cable or sometimes a flat rather broad band. The spinnerets are
movable, and by their manipulation the desired kind of line is
produced. The silk comes from many silk-glands in the abdomen, from
each of which a fine duct runs to a spinning-tube.
[Illustration: FIG. 92.--The dog or wood tick, _Dermacentor americanus_
male, the most common tick in the Northern States. (After Osborn.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 93.--The eyes and jaws, showing falx and fang of a
spider. (From Jenkins and Kellogg.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 94.--The six spinnerets (below) of a spider, with
one spinneret enlarged (above) to show the spinning "spools" or tubes.
(From Jenkins and Kellogg.)]
The spiders may be divided into two groups according to their habits,
viz., the wandering or hunting spiders, which do not spin webs to catch
their prey, and the sedentary or web-weaving spiders, which spin snares
to catch their prey. The wandering spiders can spin silk, however, and
often do so to line their burrows, to make nests, or to make egg-sacs.
[Illustration: FIG. 95.--A long-legged spider, _Tetragnatha_ sp., on
its web. (From life.)]
The hairy tarantulas and the trap-door spiders of similar appearance are
among the most interesting of the hunting spiders. They live in
vertical burrows or tunnels in the ground which are lined with silk, and
which in the case of the trap-door spider are covered with a door or lid
made of silk and soil. The top of this door is always covered with soil
or bits of leaves or twigs so that it is nearly indistinguishable from
the surface of the ground about it. When the nest is in ground covered
with moss the spider covers the door with moss. The tarantulas hunt at
night and rest in the burrow in the daytime. They are very large,
sometimes having an expanse of legs of 6 inches.
[Illustration: FIG. 96.--A running spider (Lycosidæ). (From life.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 97.--A female running spider (Lycosidæ) carrying its
egg-sac about attached to its spinnerets. (From Jenkins and Kellogg.)]
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