Plate VIII.
SPIDERS.
[CHAPTER XIII.]
Colouration of Invertebrata (Continued).
O
OF the Arthropoda, including the lobsters, crabs, shrimps, etc., little can be said here, as we have not yet been able to study them with anything like completeness. Still, we find the same laws to hold good. The animals are segmented, and we find their system of colouration segmental also. Thus, in the lobsters and crabs there is no dorsal line, but the segments are separately and definitely decorated. The various organs, such as the antennæ and eyes, are picked out in colour, as may be beautifully seen in some prawns.
When we come to the Mollusca, we meet with two distinct types, so far as our subject is concerned; the naked and the shelled. In the naked molluscs, like the slugs, we have decoration applied regionally, as is shown to perfection in the Nudibranchs, whose feathery gills are often the seat of some of the most vivid hues in nature.
The shell-bearing mollusca are proverbial for their beauty, but it is essential to bear in mind that the shell does not bear the same relation to the mollusc that the "shell" of a lobster does to that animal. The lobster's shell is part of its living body; it is a true exo-skeleton, whereas the shell of a mollusc is a more extraneous structure—a house built by the creature. We ought, on our view, to find no more relation between the decoration of a shell and the structure of its occupant, than we do in the decoration of a human dwelling-house to the tenant.
The shell consists of carbonate of lime, under one or both of the forms known to mineralogists as calcite and aragonite. This mineral matter is secreted by an organ called the mantle, and the edge, or lip, of the mantle is the part applied to this purpose. The edge of the mantle is the builder's hand, which lays the calcareous stones of the edifice. The shell is built up from the edge, and the action is not continuous but seasonal, hence arise the markings known as lines of growth. In some cases the mantle is expanded at times into wing-like processes, which are turned back over the shell, and deposit additional layers, thus thickening the shell.