Some of these animals, Dr. Johnston observes, “have 500 feet on each side of the body. Each foot has two branches and each branch at least one spine and one brush of bristles. Thus an individual has at least 1,000 spines. If we reckon ten bristles to each brush, it has at least 10,000.”
The bristles, presumably, are almost entirely for defense; the spines for offense, and admirably fashioned for killing weaker animals. Both types of weapons can be retracted entirely inside the foot when not in use, but thrust out again immediately when needed.
Aphrodite hermione, a close relative of the sea mouse, Dr. Johnston points out, “has in the dorsal branch of its feet bristles which may be described as lances. They are so small that a magnifying glass is needed to discover the workmanship, which excels in finish the finest instrument of man by the skill of the most expert artificer. A great number of these bristles garnish the extremity of each foot, and as they are stiff and serially arranged they form a hedge of spears around the body of the worm, placing it within a square of pointed pikes threatening at all points. Other bristles terminate in a knob within which is a barbed lance.”
Still others are likened by Dr. Johnston to harpoons, produced from the body only as required. They are very sharply pointed bristles with the point attached to a shaft. The harpoon point, like the bayonet previously described, has a reverted tooth which cannot be withdrawn once it has been plunged into the body of the enemy. It can, however, be detached and left to fester in the wound. Some worms lose all their harpoons in their many fights.
“There is scarcely a single weapon invented by the murderous genius of man,” commented the French naturalist Quatrefages concerning aphroditids on Bay of Biscay coasts, “whose counterpart and model could not be found among these worms. Here are the curved blades whose points present a double and prolonged cutting surface, sometimes on the concave edge as in the yataghan of the Arabs, sometimes on the convex border as in the oriental scimitar. We meet with weapons of offense and defense which remind us of the broad sword of our cuirassiers; the sabre-poignard of the artilleryman; the sabre-baionette of the chausseurs. We have harpoons, fishhooks, cutting blades in every form attached to the extremities of sharp handles. Destined to live by rapine and exposed to a hundred enemies, they need such weapons both for attacking and defense.”
Some aphroditids swim with ease. The majority, however, are found between tide marks where they burrow in wet sand. A few occasionally trespass in tidal rivers. When placed in fresh water the animals soon die, in their death throes first ejecting a milky-white fluid which turns to blackish-green at the moment of death. Despite their heavy armament, the aphroditids are a favorite food of codfish. They are distributed generally all over the world. The monster of the race in the South Pacific sometimes reaches a length of five feet.
Eating Habits of Spiders
Spiders digest most of their food before eating. They must subsist on a liquid diet. A powerful digestive fluid from the stomach is discharged on the prey. This completely liquifies the soft tissues. So potent is this fluid that spiders sometimes can devour small back-boned animals, such as fish and lizards, which they kill with their poison fangs. One African species can liquify almost completely a fish two inches long in less than three hours. Another has been observed in captivity to dispose of small snakes in the same way.
The Suicide Instinct of Iguanas
Some iguanas seem to have the ability to commit suicide without any visible means. Some of these lizards, hitherto unknown to science, captured alive and uninjured in Cuba by Dr. Paul Bartsch of the Smithsonian Institution, died a few minutes later as if a mere wish to end their lives were sufficient to achieve death.