Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 July 1884 — The Sea-Spider. [ARTICLE]

The Sea-Spider.

Of all the crab tribe, this is sorely the most fantastic little fellow, and ought to be considered the “missing link,” lor he has certainly one of the first instincts of civilization, namely, that of attempting to cover himself with extraneous and ornamental garments. He is the dandy es the sea. Bits of seaweed are his great reliance, bat small objects of almost any kind he

G . . vwill appropriate, eveu to pieces of stone or wood. Gne of mine showed considerable taste and an idea of style, preferring always the most gttudy colors which he could find in the ta{ik. These little animals will spend hours every day at their toilet, appropriating with their hand-like claws bits of seaweed, Sertularia, sponge, or Tubularia. One will perhaps place a bit on the tip of his nose, or suspend from it a long, ribbon-like strip of red or green alga?, or affix similar fragments to his legSj elbows, or knees, as,we may call them. He does not appear to take these pieces at random, but has the air of selecting them with care, and then leisurely cutting them off from the large fronds with his own nippers, of which he has two pair, one upon each of his two foremost arms. Having severed the desired portion, he takes it up in one of his hands (for his nippers serve for hands as well as shears), and, placing one end of it to his mouth, evidently deposits upon it a species of mucus, or marine cement, which secures the object in the position in which his lordship sees fit to arrange it, and in which matter he is somewhat fastidious. This mucus must have great strength, for in his native element he will walk about thus arrayed, without any danger of his ornaments being washed away even by the rolling surf. In the tank, when his toilet is completed, he will advance to the front or most conspicuous spot he can find, and as near to the spectator as he can conveniently get, with a self-satisfied air, as much as to say: “I’m in full dress now; how do you like my style ?”