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.
Living crickets in cages, with materials for food and concealment, and individual specimens in wide-mouth bottles or vials with cotton stoppers.
1. What is the average size and the general color of crickets?
2. Just what do they do when you try to catch them? What structures enable them to do these things?
3. Of the three pairs of legs, which extend sidewise for running or grasping, and which backward for jumping or climbing? What structures have the legs to enable them to do their work properly?
4. Notice how well developed the cricket's wings are, and state how much they are used or how they influence the habits of the animal.
5. How many projecting spines are there on the hinder end of the body? Are they ornamental or useful? how? The female crickets have a special spear-shaped spine for depositing eggs.
6. In a column make a list of the senses (sight, feeling, etc.), and opposite each state what kind of an organ is used and where it is located. The ears are oblong white spots on the second long piece of the front legs.
7. Find out whether the cricket chews solid food or sucks liquid food, and whether it has biting jaws or protrusible lips. See whether it will attack a toothpick or your finger, and if the crickets have been confined long, whether there has been any attempt at cannabalism. Is its natural food animal or vegetable matter?
Individual specimens in wide-mouth bottles or jars, and other specimens in cages, with turf or foliage for food and concealment. Simple lenses.
Notice the form and size of your specimen, its color, the number of its legs and of its feelers. Find the eyes; the two large eyes, a tiny one between the two feelers, and near the inner edge of each large eye, another tiny one. With a lens notice the markings on the large eyes. Find the mouth, and note its lips and finger-like feelers. Draw out an outer wing, and then carefully draw out the delicate under wing, allowing them both to fold into place again. Under the wings find the circular or crescent-shaped membranes, the eardrums. Watch the grasshopper's body expand and contract in breathing, and find the small breathing holes along each side the body. Compare its rate of breathing with your own.