A spider’s face seen at 30-times magnification, from the February 1884 issue of Science Gossip.
This is illustrating a sort of study, or perhaps prose poem, about this spider species. The language goes something like this:
Epeira conica , the subject of the plate, is a species of the Family Epe’iridae of the Tribe Octonoculina, and fairly represents the popular idea of the entire Order, as to them especially belong the webs, so well known, formed by precise geometrical rule radiating from a centre, and connected at regular intervals by threads.
Interesting as it would be, space does not admit touching on the general anatomy of the spider, but it may be comprehensively stated, that the differences of structure between spiders and insects, consist in the continuation of head and chest in one mass, no articulation of the body into rings or segments, the number of legs, the absence of antennae, the structure of the mouth and palpi, and particularly the presence of none but simple eyes ; these points at once elevate and characterise the spider above the insect.
You can read more of this arachnid superiority here, at archive.org.