The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-01-27
FACTS ABOUT SPIDERS.
THE OWNER OF A FINE COLLEC-
TON TALKS ABOUT THEM.

They Spin Their Webs.
From the Washington Star.
1.-THE spider, you know, is not an insect.
It belongs to one class in a group of crea-
lures 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 mel" exclaimed the Star
writer, who was already becoming a trife
confused.
Eight ORDERS" repeated DIR. George
Marx of the chronological bureau in the
Department of Agriculture, who owns the
finest collection of spiders in this country.
THE lowest order of the class is found in
the 'pentastoma,' a worm-like creature that
has been discovered in the eye of a rattle
sneak, the liver of a negro and the intes-
tines of dog. Next in the scale of de-
velopment comes the mites and ticks, which
are not SO essentially blood-sucking crea-
lures as is popularity supposed they live on
the juices of plants ordinarily, and it is the
exceptional one that ever gets an oppor-
tunity for a taste Of gore. Then follows
the false scorpions, minute and without
tails, which live in molds and decaying
books. Above them by step is the order
of 'galeodes,' ferOcious looking beasts of
some size, which are found in the south and
southwest, and are said to destroy herds of
cattle sometimes by their bites.
THE DADDY LONGLEGs' ARE NEXT.
and then the spider, after which come the
'pedipalpl,' that have foreclaws to clutch
with. Here is a pedipalpus in this bottle.
you see it is horrible-looking lobster-like
animal, most unpleasant to meet anywhere.
and quite SIX inches long. 1t is called the
mule killer or niger killer in the south,
and though commonly thought to be very
poisonous it is in reality perfectly harmless.
The only weapons it has are glands that
emit a vinegary odor so penetrating that if
you hold it your hand will smell
of vinegar for half a day afterward.
Highest in the ranks Of the arichnids 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 in punches
of bananas from the West Indies and the
Isthmus of Panama, and centipedes are i'm
ported with logwood from Brazil and Ven
eZuela. The scorpion carries his tail curled
over his back, and when he wishes to strike
he snaps with it over his head. 1t 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. Venomous animals
OF all kinds grow bigger and secrete poison
more rapidly in warm countries than in
cold ones, and wounds of any kind heal less
well. Surmise has been made by no less an
authority than DR.. Fayrer 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 guam
Titles Injected into the circulation with the
bites Judging by its effects upon other
crawling things, it would seem that spider
poison Is the worst known. A big cater
pillar or grasshopper, bitten by a spider that
is very small indeed, will die Immediately;
then the spider gobbles the prey at leisure"
adj SPIDERS vENoMoUs.
"Are many spiders poisonousp
''All spiders are poisonous-that is to say,
they secrete in their mandibles 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, and is very generally
feared. To its variety belongs the cele-
brated 'katipo,' which the New Zealanders
dread so much. 1t is very small, and
dIo given ny Uil0 udblNeS VI many
human beings and beasts killed by it.
However, no case of death from spider bite
has been satisfactorily proved by the exhi-
bition of the dead person, the spider
and the bite; therefore, there is still good
deal of room for doubt. Spiders usually
will run away from human being; but
one family, know as the jumping SPIDERS
is very aggressive. You have often seen
the jumping spider. 1t Is hairy and has
cd ha Of tLrh DO ~
often finds it in houses and on warm walls;
point your finger at 1t and it will jump at
the finger and bite. Prof Otto Lugger,
formerly of the department of agriculture,
has placed on record the case of his little
girl who was bitten by an 'attus.' as this
spider is called. She Immediately went
into a series OF spasms and was quite alarm
ingly i'll. The most striking symptom of
severe spider bite is rigidity like that of
tetanus, or lockjaw."
HOW SPIDERS ARE PUT TOGETHER
"How is spider constructedg'
THE spider is distinguished from insects
by very important point of structure
The insects have head, chest, and an alb
domen, 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 covered by a horny she'll and is
soft inside; it has a heart, liver, nerves,
brain, intestines, arteries, veins, and eight
eyes. Also it possesses eight legs, OF two
more than insects have. Ninety-five of
every 100 spiders that you find in webs are
females; the males are only about one
twentieth of the size of the female anyway,
and the only object of their existence
seems to be the continuation of their species
in the distaff 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 up they act exactly like
female spiders. The female has at the end
OF her posterior extremity an elaborate
spinning apparatus. Six eternal spinning
organs there are, tubular in shape, into
which open from 10 to 400 spinning
glands, according to the variety of the
spider. Each gland, all operating 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 few threads at her command,
walks along with a 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
mas built so artistically. and simply lies in
walt for victims to tumble into her trap"
SPIDERS INTELLIGENCE.
Does not the manner of building the
Web exhibit remarkable instinctp
We'll, l should say so. The term in
stlnct, however, means nothing; it is merely
a vulgar name for what is in reality in