The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-12-08

| silk and used as a lid a copper cent
which he placed within its reach. Thus
the hairy tarantula (E. hentZiD is less
skilIful than the members Of other
| tribes of its family. Like the rest of
them, E. hentZii is relatively low In
physical organization, having four
lungs instead of two, as in most spiders,
and weaving no webs except the silken
lining of his burroW.
Tropical America and Asia have
large species closely related to our lion
spider. They are, like ours, four-lung
spiders The bird spider of Surinam
often figured in books. has body two
inches long, pitchy black, and covered
with long. reddish brown hairs. 1t is
said that it catches birds. kills them
with its poisonous bite, and then sucks
their blood.
The Spider Wasps.
The family pompilidae, to which the
great wasp belongs, are all slender in
FORM and have long legs, with which
to keep at bay the spiders they attack
Their bodies are black and the wings
commonly a dusky red, but these may
be Variegated with orange. AS far as
known the tarantula hawk is the lar
gest of the hymenoptera1 1t is found
only where the hairy tarantula, or
lion spider, abounds; that is, in the
southwestern portions of this coun-
| try and extending into Mexico. About
14O species Of the family are known.
Most of them dig a series of holes in
the ground, as does the tarantula
! hawk, while lesser number construct
cells of wet mud on the side of a tree,
rock, bank or board; and after the
mud hardens bring in spider and lay
| 4 only
upon a certain kind of spider. Thus,
| the balance is maintained The wasps
! keep down the number of the spiders;
while the number of wasps is in turn
| limited by the supply of the spiders
upon which their larvae feed.
Number of Species.
! From what has already been stated,
we may be ready to conclude that spi-
! ders are among the most interesting
of small creatures. They are also the
most familiar. There are so many
] kinds of them that 300 OF 400 species
may be found near any city. Some
/ kinds are so small as to be seen with
difficulty. Others. like our great taran-
tuIa. are so ferociOus in appearance, as
to excite terror and give rise to dread
! full tales. Few spiders bear common
names The common house spider
| CTheridium) spins light webs in the
! corners of rooms. The cellar spider
! (Pholcus) weaves thin webs about the
stairs and shelves.
Jumping Spiders.
A common, gray spider CEpiblemum)
| that lives outside of houses, on fences,
etc, is a member of the class called
| jumping spiders. This one is quick in
movement, short and stout, one-fourth
of an inch long, marked with white.
The eight eyes in this group are hard
to find, because they are placed so far
back and are so small, that the crea-
ture appears to have only two. Large
| jumping spiders make nests Of white
silk under stones near the ground.
They are called PhidippUs, are either
tgray or black and are half an inch
| long. All these spiders walk sideways
as we'll as forward, and jump to great
distances. They make no webs, but
may spin silken bags under stones in
which to pass the winter or to lay their
eggs. Another jumping species COM
mon on fences and houses is Marptu-
sa, half an inch long. and gray, with
long, white hairs, but marked with
dark bands. These run about for their
lprey on plants. Some of them have
silk nests among the leaves.