1. What is the general color and the average size of cockroaches?
  2. During what time of the day are roaches most active? Where do they hide at other times? How do their shape and color aid concealment? Note any odd or striking colors or marks which might make them distinguishable to their mates.
  3. Is the roach a quick or a slow moving animal? How does it get about,—by running, jumping, walking, crawling, swimming, or flying? Turn your specimen on its back and see how it recovers its proper position. Notice the relative size and development of the wings and their use in flying.
  4. If uninjured, your specimen has six legs. Why don't they step on each other? Notice the stiff hairs on the legs and the white pads under the feet. How would these structures be useful to the animal?
  5. The large, black, shiny eyes are on the front and sides of the head; the long "horns," or feelers, are attached just below the eyes. Upon which sense, sight or feeling, do you think the roach depends more? Explain your statement.
  6. Beside the mouth are a long and a short pair of "feelers"; perhaps these are for tasting or smelling. What do roaches like to eat? Do they choose their food? What damage do they do?
  7. How can a house be rid of cockroaches?
Suggested drawing.
  1. [a. ]A cockroach, seen from above.

THE LIVING SPIDER

Materials.

Living spiders, preferably large ones, in cages; individual specimens in battery jars or wide-mouth bottles. Cocoons. Simple lenses.

Observations.

Each pupil may feel sure that if treated fairly any of the common spiders may be handled without fear of bite or injury.

  1. Note that the spider's body is of two regions, the head-thorax and the abdomen, and that it is supported by eight legs. To what part of the body are the legs attached?
  2. Find the feelers; if they are club-shaped, your specimen is a male. State their number and tell where they are attached. What is the sex of your spider?
  3. Usually there are eight tiny near-sighted eyes on the front of the head. State the color of the eyes and by a diagram indicate their arrangement.
  4. With what kind of material is the body covered (use the lens)?
  5. What is the color of your specimen? What special markings has it?
  6. Holding the spider aloft in your fingers, allow it to drop upon the thread it will spin, and watch it climb and spin. Record the number of the spinners, their situation, and how they act. Are the threads sticky? If so, why doesn't the spider stick to its web? Is the web used for a home or for a snare?
  7. Try to discover how the feet are enabled to cling to the thread.
  8. Examine a cocoon, noting its outer form and structure, and look for an opening at the top. If you can open a cocoon carefully with scissors, look for its two coats and inspect its contents.
  9. State three uses for the spider's silk.
  10. What is the work of spiders amongst the animal population of the earth, or of what use are they?
  11. Out of doors find webs of various kinds: wheel web, tent web, triangle web, etc.
  12. How do the jumping spiders differ from others in their spinning and feeding habits?
  13. Look up what is meant by ballooning spiders. Find out when ballooning occurs and what is accomplished by it.

Find out the name of your kind of spider.