Texas Nature Observations and Reminiscenses Page: 63
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TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 63
close focusing lens. It takes
considerable courage of course, to
prepare a photograph of these
jumping tarantulas from nature;
but the apparatus was so ar-
ranged beforehand, that the spid-
er could not reach the hand-in
case it should have made a leap.
Both photos were prepared in the
presence of Mr. A Koep Jr., of
San Antonio, one of our camping
party.
With the above memoranda, it
also affords me much pleasure in
appending an unusual fine and
rare microscopic photograph of
the hull or skeleton of a very mi-.
nute young tarantula entangled in
the web-linings of the old cocoon
in which, with numbers of others
of its former host had been
hatched.
After myriads of the. globular
yellowish-white eggs are deposit-
ed by the female spider inside of
the snow-white and silken cocoon
cavity and hatched out, the de-
veloping young broad-headed ta-
rantulas undergo several shedding
processes-similar to the meta-
morphosis of beetles and other in-
sects; and this evolution of the
newborn spider is a most wonder-
ful phenomenon-as can be seen
on the photograph of the cast-off
hull of one of the newborn "little
fellows" showing the cast-off
skin in totoe--photo reproduced by
the aid of powerful lenses of the
microscope. The cocoon from
which this young specimen was
photographed contained large
numbers of similar cast-off hulls;
and the one seen herein I had
mounted between two slide glasses
after careful removal of some of
the inside particles, including the
entangled hull and web-lining,
from a jumping spider cocoon.
As seen, the spider hull is
suspended inside of a network of
spider threads-which the young
spider itself undoutedly had spun
inside the cocoon previous to its
extrication from its old anatomy,as seen on the photo, the abdomin-
al and broad hull part shows sev-
eral large cracks; through this
cracked shell the new-formed
spider extricated its entire anat-
omy: first all feet with pads and
joints; then the head parts; then
the thorax, and ultimately its ab-
domen-a wonderful process,
when we consider that this spider
bull specimen was not larger than
one of the minute young spiders
seen on one of the previous photos
-about the size of two pinheads!
The young spiders as seen pho-
tographically, previous to its pro-
cess of shedding, seems to en-
tangle themselves in the web-lin-
ing-perhaps spun by their own
abdominal spinning apparatus,
having thus secured a good hold
for the tiny but strong feet, they
manage to gradually perforate
the old exterior abdominal hull-
and retract the balance of their
anatomy. How else could it be
explained? It is known that even
at more remote age, this young
brood can spin a tiny web-hard-
ly visible to the naked eye, and
the separate globular cocoon gen-
erally at breeding time, is filled
with eggs, deposited by the old
female arachnidan-with no par-
ticular web-lining inside the
breeding cocoon. However, most
,f the types of jumping tarantulas
have their eggs deposited and en-
cased in a separate globular co-
coon-which is covered by still
another larger cocoon membrane
-the shelterhouse of the old.spi-
der; and when the young brood
develops they manage to escape
the breeding cocoon and enter the
large open cavity of the old host
where, among its spider thread
meshes, they entangle themselves
or spin their own web, and under-
go there all the peculiar shedding
process.
It is interesting to note how
these and other types of spiders
act under a few drops of chloro-
form being dropped, or sprayed
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Menger, R. Texas Nature Observations and Reminiscenses, book, 1913; San Antonio, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth143558/m1/67/?rotate=270: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting University of Texas Health Science Center Libraries.