VIII] 



CRAB-SPIDERS. MIMICRY 



53 



in their actions. Their body is generally broad and 

 flattened, and their legs, instead of being arranged 

 fore and aft, like those of most spiders, extend more 

 or less laterally, and though they can move pretty 

 actively in any direction their normal method of 

 progression is sideways. Then again, when frightened 

 they cramp their legs up under their bodies in a most 

 crab-like fashion and "sham dead." 



-_, 



Fig. 6. A Crab-spider (Thomisidae), x 3. 



We saw some of these spiders on the iron railing, 

 but their real haunts are among grass and herbage or 

 upon the trunks of trees. Some are true rovers, 

 hunting their prey by day and camping out wherever 

 they happen to find themselves at night. Their 

 methods are without guile except that they approach 

 their victims warily; their trust is in rapidity of 



