HUVIER, naturalist, nephew of Hébert. Autograph letter signe - Lot 72

Lot 72
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HUVIER, naturalist, nephew of Hébert. Autograph letter signe - Lot 72
HUVIER, naturalist, nephew of Hébert. Autograph letter signed to Hébert, pinned to an autograph manuscript by Hébert. 2 and 2 pp. in-4. [1778]. He describes the species of spiders he has observed. "I have noticed 7 or 8 species [...]. I have sought less to distinguish them, however, than to discover the manner in which they are engendered. I readily believe that the distinctive parts of the sex are in the small antennae or legs they have around the mouth. At least I've noticed that these parts are not the same in males and females; they end in a sort of bead in the spiders I've believed to be male, either because their legs are longer and their bodies smaller, or because their colors are brighter, characteristics that readily denote the male in many insects. I have seen several times and in different species of spiders the male pressing his antennae (then very mobile) strongly against the body of his female, and sometimes the latter opposing him strongly with sudden movements, much as a bitch does in heat before allowing herself to be covered [...] I am quite convinced that spiders are deprived of the sense of sight and even of the sense of smell [...]. A fly can live for nine days without a head, an experiment I made by chance and which surprised me [...]". Hébert's manuscript is a detailed list of the spider species he identified, along with their characteristics:"[...] 9. Bush spider, web in inverted cone, of the same fabric as that of the domestic spider, of which it is perhaps a variety [...]. 18. The very large terrestrial spider, rare, the largest spider I know, perhaps the Tarantula [...]".
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