Click2Flicks - Charlotte's Web - Chapter 3 - WHO IS CHARLOTTE?

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <tr> <td> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b><i>CHARLOTTE'S WEB</i></p> <p><font size="4">CHAPTER 3 - WHO IS CHARLOTTE?</font></font></b></p>  </div> <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">The American Museum of <a href="http://research.amnh.org/" target="_blank"><b>Natural History</b></a> notes - in <a href="http://research.amnh.org/entomology/spiders/catalog/COUNTS.html" target="_blank"><i><b>The World Spider Catalog, Version 7.0</b></i></a> - that there are currently 39,490 identified species of spiders. Members of the animal kingdom, spiders are <a href="http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/spidermyth/myths/arachnid.html" target="_blank"><b>arachnids</b></a>, not <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/alienempire/" target="_blank"><b>insects</b></a>. (Spiders have <a target="_blank" href="images/two_parts.jpg"><b>two parts</b></a> to their body and <a target="_blank" href="images/eight_legs.jpg"><b>eight legs</b></a>. Insects have three parts to their body and six legs.)</p> <p>What type of <a target="_blank" href="images/spider.gif"><b>spider</b></a> is Charlotte? She gives us a clue when she tells us her name: Charlotte A. Cavatica. Let’s break that down:</p><ul> <li>The middle initial - A - stands for Charlotte’s middle name: <a href="http://www.thefreedictionary.com/genus+Aranea" target="_blank"><i><b>Aranea</b></i></a>. That comes from Latin, since <a href="http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/arthropoda/arachnida/araneae.html" target="_blank"><i><b>Araneae</b></i></a> is the scientific name for spiders who, among other things, weave <a target="_blank" href="images/orb_web.gif"><b>orb-webs</b></a>.</li><br><br> <li><i>Cavatica</i> - Charlotte’s last name - comes from the Latin word cavus (which <a href="http://archives.nd.edu/ccc.htm" target="_blank"><b>means</b></a> a pit, hole or hollow). Spiders such as Charlotte, in other words, prefer to spend their lives in shady places - like one might find in a barn.</li><br><br> <li>At the time E.B. White was working on his book (including the year 1951), Aranea Cavatica was actually the <a href="http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/dspace/bitstream/2246/4228/1/N1487.pdf" target="_blank"><b>scientific term</b></a> (this is a PDF link) for <a href="http://canadianarachnology.dyndns.org/data/spiders/14785" target="_blank"><b>barn spiders</b></a> (scroll down 50%) who mostly <a href="http://muse.jhu.edu/cgi-bin/access.cgi?uri=/journals/lion_and_the_unicorn/v019/19.2neumeyer.html" target="_blank"><b>live in</b></a> the <a target="_blank" href="images/area_of.png"><b>area of</b></a> northern New England and southeastern Canada.</li><br><br> <li>Today, spiders <a target="_blank" href="images/like_charlotte.jpg"><b>like Charlotte</b></a> are known as <a target="_blank" href="images/Araneus%20Cavaticus.jpg"><b><i>Araneus Cavaticus</i></b></a>.</li></ul> <p align="justify">Now that we know who Charlotte is, let’s take a look at how she lives - and how she <a target="_blank" href="images/spins_her_web.jpg"><b>spins her webs</b></a>.</p> </div> <p align="center"><font size="2"><a href="charlottes_web_ch2.htm">GO TO LAST CHAPTER</a>   <a href="charlottes_web_ch1.htm">BACK TO FIRST CHAPTER</a>   <a href="charlottes_web_ch4.htm">GO TO NEXT CHAPTER</a></p><br> </td> </tr> </table>  </td>  <td align="center" valign="top"> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.awesomestories.com/includes/ad_format.js"> </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> </td>  </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table> </body>