spicy

[Eng. spic (e); -v.] IMG:content-0032.png:[blocks in formation] ous and universally distributed, the largest being found in the tropics. The abdomen is without distinct divisions, and is generally soft and tumid; the legs are eight in number, seven-jointed, the last joint armed with two hooks usually toothed like a comb. The distal joint of the falces is folded down on the next, like the blade of a pocket-knife upon the handle, and the duct of a poison-gland in the cephalothorax opens at the summit of the terminal joint. There are two or four pulmonary sacs and a tracheal system; 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 diadem a , the Common Garden Spider, more than a you sand glands, with separate excretory ducts, secrete the viscid material of the web. These ducts ultimately enter the six prominent arachnidial mammille, projecting from the hinder end of the abdomen, and having their terminal faces beset with minute arachnidial papillæ, by which the secretion of the gland is poured out. By means of these silky threads, spiders form their dwellings and construct ingenious nets for the capture of their prey; these threads serve also as a safeguard against falling, and as a means of transport from one elevated object 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 cro lines in astronomical telescopes, and have been made into textile fabrics as articles of curiosity. Spiders are e entially predaceous, and adopt various devices as nets, traps, and ambushes, for the capture of their prey; but 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 esophagus of the spider. The bite of none of the species is dangerous to man. [TARANTULA.] They are extremely pugnacious, and in their combats often sustain the lo of a limb, which, like the Crustaceans, they have the power of reproducing. The males are smaller than the females, which they approach with great caution, as they run great risk of being devoured, even at the time of impregnation. The eggs are numerous, and usually enveloped in a cocoon or egg-case; the young undergo no metamorphosis. The chief species are described in this Dictionary under their popular names. "Scaliger relates that in Gascony, his country, there are spiders of that virulency, that if a man treads upon them, to crush them, their poyson will pa through the very soles of his shoes."-Derham: Phys. Theol., bk. iv., ch. xiii. (Note.) IMG:content-0033.png:[blocks in formation] IMG:content-0034.png:[blocks in formation] "Spider-like Out of his self-drawing web he gives us note." Shakesp.: Henry VIII ., i. 1. spi-der-wõrt, s. [Eng. spider , and wort .] Botany : 1. Sing .: (1) The genus Tradescantia; spec., Tra descant i a virginica ; (2) Anther i cum serotinum . 2. Pl .: The order Commelynaceae (q. v.). spie-gel-ei-sen, s. [Ger. (See def.)] Metall .: A name applied by the Germans to a variety of cast-iron, which is coarsely crystalline, the large crystal planes having bright reflections. Numerous analyses show that it contains about five per cent. of combined carbon, but although most, if not all, analyses show a fair proportion of manganese to be present it is still regarded as uncertain whether this element or the combined carbon determines the crystallization. spier, s. [SPIRE, 3.] spiër, v. t. or i. [SPEIR.] spif-fy, adj. [Etym. doubtful.] Spruce, fine, showy. ( Slang.)