In such leaves, there are a well-marked cuticle, a thick epidermis, a thick hypodermis at least on the upper side of the leaf, well-developed palisade tissue, and a poorly developed system of air-spaces.
Its upper side is always covered by the spider with pieces of the vegetation growing hard by, so that, when the door is closed, the position of the burrow is completely concealed.
On the other hand, they can be spread out horizontally so as to expose their own upper side as well as the dorsal surface FIG.
Both the two former are iron-grey on the upper parts, and black below, a style of coloration rare among mammals, as the upper side of the body is in the great majority darker than the lower.
The two ratels may be distinguished by the fact that the African species has a distinct white line round the body at the junction of the grey of the upper side with the black of the lower, while in the Indian this line is absent; the teeth also of the former are larger, rounder and, heavier than those of the latter.