Spider Monkey
a general name applied to many species of platyrhine or New World monkeys, but more especially to the members of the genus Ateles, which are distinguished by the great relative length, slenderness, and flexibility of their limbs, and by the prehensile power of their tails. A familiar ORB SPIDER domen, and having their terminal faces beset with minute arachnidial papillæ, by which the secretion of the gland is poured out.
By means of these silky threads, spiders form their dwellings and construct ingenious nets for the capture of their prey; these threads serve also as a safeguard against falling, and as a means of support from one elevated object to another, being thrown out as a sort of flying bridge. The webs are in high repute for stanching blood; the threads are employed for the cross lines in astronomical telescopes, and have been made into textile fabrics as articles of curiosity. Spiders are essentially predaceous. The fate of the victim is always the same the claw joints of the falces are buried in the body, inflicting a poisonous wound, and the juices are then sucked out by the muscular apparatus appended to the œsophagus of the spider. The bite of none of the species is dangerous to man. (See TARANTULA.) They are extremely pugnacious, and in their combats often sustain the loss of a limb, which, like the Crustaceans, they have the power of reproducing. The eggs are numerous, and usually enveloped in a cocoon or egg case; the young undergo no metamorphosis.
SPIDER FLY (Ornithomyia), a genus of dipterous insects, chiefly allied to the forest fly. The genus are parasitical on SPIDER MONKEY species is the chameck (A. Chameck), which occurs abundantly in Brazil. The body is about 20 inches, the tail 2 feet long, and the color is a general black.
The coaita (A. paniscus), another typical species, has an average length of 12 inches; the tail measures over 2 feet long, and the fur is of a glossy black hue.