Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-01-18
STRANGE FACTS ABOUT SPIDERS.
The Owner of the Finest Collection in
This Country Talks About Them.
WONDERFUL EVIDENCES OF INTELLIGENCE THAT
THEY ExHIBIT-ALL SPIDERS ARE POISONOUS
AND SOME ARE AGGREssIvr-EFFEcTs OF THEIR
BITEs-AED HOW THEY SPIN THEIR WEBS.

AND SOME ARE AGGREssIvr-EFFECTs OF THEIR
BITEs-AED HOW THEY SPIN THEIR WEBS.
''The spider. you know. is not an insect. It
belongs to one class in a group of creatures
called 'arthropods,' which includes three other
classes also--the crustaceans. such as crabs and
Holsters. the insects proper and the myriapods
or centipedes. The spiders class, known as
the 'arachnida.' is divided into eight orders ~
Goodness me-" exclaimed TIE STAR writer,
who was already becoming trihe confused.
Eight orders repeated DR.. George Marx
of the chronological bureau in the Department
OF Agriculture, who owns the finest collection
of spiders in this country. 1.-THE lowest order
of the class is found in the 'pentastoma,' a
worm-like creature that has been discovered in
the eye of a rattlesnake, the liver Of negro
and the intestines of a dog. Next in the scale
of development come the mites and ticks,
which are not so essentially biood-sucking
creatures as Is popularity supposed; they live
on the juices of plants ordinarily and it is the
exceptional one that ever gets an opportunity
for taste of gore. Then follow the false scor-
pions, minute and without tails. which live in
mold and decaying books. Above them by a
step is the order OF galeodes. ferocious-look-
ing beasts OF some size which are found IN the
south ana southwest, and are said to destroy
herds OF cattle sometimes by their bites.
THE DADDY L0NGLEGs ARE NEXT,
and then the spider. after which come the
'pedipalpi,' that have foreclaws to clutch with.
Here is pedlpapus in this bottle; you see it is
horrible-looklng lobster-like animal, most
unpieasast to meet anywhere, and quite six
inches long. 1t Is called the mule killer or
Niger killer in the south, and though COM
monty thought to be very poisonous it is in
reahty perfectly harmless. The only weapons
hs4E Cyln tl,,t
penetrating that if you hold it your hand will
smell of vinegar for half "a day afteIward.
highest III the ranks OF the arachnids are the
scorpions. Here is one as long as your hand
that came over in the packing of a box from
the East Indies. Strange creatures are often
brought into this country in that way;
tarantulas come concealed i'll punches of
bananas from the West Indies and the Isthmus
OF Panama, and centipedes are imported with
logwood from Brazil and Venezuela. The
scorpion carries his tail curled over his back.
and when he wishes to strike he snaps with it
over his head. IL is seldom that he misses
what he aims at. The poison of the sting
depends for its effects largely upon climate and
the fears of the victim. NenOmous animals of
a.! sorts grow bigger and secrete poison more
rapidly III warm countries than in cold ones,
and wounds of any kind heal less we'll. Surnse
has been made by no less an authority than DIR.
Fayrcr that the poison of the bee is as intense
as that OF the cobra the most fatal of all
understanding allowance for the proportion
OF the quantities injected into the circ ulation
with the bites. Judging by its effects upon
other crawling thing5It would seem that spider
poison Is the wors: known. A Dig caterpillar
or Grassnopper, bitten by spider that is very
small indeed. will die immediately; then the
spider gobbies the prey at leisure"
ALL SPIDERS vEEoMoUs.
care many spiders poisonous?"
'All spiders are poisonous-that is to say,
they secrete i'll their mandibles a powerful
venom, which is elected through little hole
IN the extremity OF the mandIble when the
bite Is inflicted The most dangerous of all
spiders, so far as | am aware, is the so-called
black widow, which has a red dot on the
under side AID Is very generally feared. To
Its variety belongs the celebrated 'katipo
which the New Zealanders dread so much. Ii
Is very small, and accounts are given bv the
natives of many human beings and beasts
killed by 1t. However, no case of death from
spider bite has been satisfactorily proven by
the exhibition OF the dead person, the spider
and the bite; therefore, there is still good
deal OF room for doubt Spiders usually viii
run away from human being: but one family,
known as the Jumping spiders, is very ag-
gresslve. You have often seen the jumping
spider. 1t Is hairy and has three red spots on
the rear OF the back. One often finds it in
houses and on warm walls; point your finger
at 1t and 1t viii jump at the finger and bite,
Prof. Otto Lugger, formerly of the Depart
ment of Agriculture, has placed on record the
case of his little girl who was bitten by an
'attus, as this spider is called She imme-
dlately went into series or spasms and was
quite aiarmingly Ill. The most striking
symptom OF severe spider bite is a rigidity
like that OF tetanus, or lockjaw."
HOW SPIDERS ARE PUT TOGETHER.
Show is spider constructed!"
''The spider is distinguished from insects by
m ~
sects have head, chest and an abdomen. but
the spider has no head at all, scientifically
speaking. In other words the spiders head
and chest are IN one piece. The animal is COW
cred by horny shell and is soft inside; it has
heart liver, nerves, brain. intestines arteries.
veins and eight eyes. Also it possesses eight
legs, or two more than insects have Ninety
tive OF every hundred spiders that you find in
webs are females the males are only about
one-twentleth OF the size OF the females any
way, and the only object of their existence
seems to be the continuation OF their species
In the dIst9f line. They do nothing in the
world but loaf after coming Of age appear to
eat nothing at all and soon die. While they
are growing ~ they act exactly like female
spiders. The female has at the end of her pos
terror extremity an elaborate spinning appara-
tus. Six external spinning organs there are,
tubular in shape, into which open from ten to
four hundred spinning glands, according to the
variety of the spider. Each gland, ali opef-
atlng together spins a separate thread and the
spinner manipulates the threads by holding
them between the teeth of her comb-like
claws. The poorly equipped spinner, as to
glands, with only a few threads at her COM
mand, walks along with thread always in her
grasp. to catch herself by if she tumbles and
captures her prey by jumping at it, But the
good spinner trusts to the web she has built so
artstcally, and simply lies in wait for vlcti
to tumble into her trap"
SPIDERS INTELLIGENCE
"Does not the manner of building the web
exhibit a remarkable instinct?'
'Well, / should say SO. The term instinct.
however, means nothing; it is merely vulgar
name for what il in reality inherited ex-
perience. spider knows how to construct a
web by reason of the fact that the art has been
gradually acquired through the observation
and experiment OF thousands of generations OF
her ancestors. Weaving or spinning spiders
make three kinds of webs. The first ana most
perfect sort is the geometrical web; the second
consists of lot of loose interviewer meshes of
all shapes and sizes; the third kind is best de-
scrlbed by its name, sheet or blanket and
has little tube-shaped attachment into which
the spider may retire and live in security. The
most important thing in which the spinner
shows her intelligence is in getting the first
line that is is to start her web from one point
to another high in the air. Suppose that She ia
seated on a twig Is feet from the ground and
desires to get a thread across from that twig to
the branch OF another twig IL feet away how
Is she going to do it? I'll tell you. She knows
how the wind is blowing and takes notice OF it's
force. When the breeze just suits her purpose
as to direction and strength. she raises her alb
domen as high as possible and emits single