Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 09.djvu/51

SPIDER 25 SPIELHAGEN, FRIEDBICH tern; eyes generally eight in number; no auditory organs have been discovered. Their most characteristic organ is the arachnidium, the apparatus by which fine silky threads — in the majority of the species utilized for spinning a web — are produced. In Epeira diadema, the com- mon garden spider, more than 1,000 glands, with separate excretory ducts, secrete the viscid material of the web. These ducts ultimately enter the six prominent arachnidial mammillae, pro- jecting from the hinder end of the ab- birds, never on quadrupeds. 0. avicularia frequently infests the common fowl, the ORB SPIDER domen, and having their terminal faces beset with minute arachnidial papillae, by which the secretion of the gland is poured out. By means of these silky threads, spiders form their dwellings and con- struct ingenious nets for the capture of their prey; these threads serve also as a safeguard against falling, and as a means of support from one elevated ob- ject to another, being thrown out as a sort of flying bridge. The webs are in high repute for stanching blood; the threads are employed for the cross lines in astronomical telescopes, and have been made into textile fabrics as articles of curiosity. Spiders are essentially predaceous. The fate of the victim is always the same — the claw joints of the falces are buried in the body, inflicting a poisonous wound, and the juices are then sucked out by the muscular apparatus appended to the oesophagus of the spider. The bite of none of the species is dangerous to man, (See Tarantula.) They are extremely pugnacious, and in their combats often sustain the loss of a limb, which, like the Crustaceans, they have the power of reproducing. The egg9 are numerous, and usually en- veloped in a cocoon or egg case; the young undergo no metamorphosis. SPIDER FLY (Ornithomyia) , a genus of dipterous insects, chiefly allied to the forest fly. The genus are parasitical on SPIDER FLY blackcock, and other birds. It is green- ish-yellow, with smoke-colored wings. SPIDER MONKEY, a general name applied to many species of platyrhine or New World monkeys, but more especial- ly to the members of the genus Ateles, which are distinguished by the great relative length, slenderness, and flexi- bility of their limbs, and by the prehen- sile power of their tails. A familiar SPIDER MONKEY species is the chameck (A. Chatneck) , which occurs abundantly in Brazil. The body is about 20 inches, the tail 2 feet long, and the color is a general black. The coaita (^4. panisacs) , another typical species, has an average length of 12 inches; the tail measures over 2 feet long, and the fur is of a glossy black hue. SPIDERWORT, the common name of plants of the genus Tradescantia, one species of which, T. virginica, is culti- vated in gardens. SPIEGELEISEN, a name applied to a variety of cast iron which is coarsely crystalline, the large crystal planes having bright reflections. It contains about 5 per cent, carbon and considerable manganese. See Iron and Steel. SPIELHAGEN, FRIEDRICH, a Ger- man novelist; born in Magdeburg, Feb. 24, 1829, but passed all his youth