100 SPIDERS [CH. 



when it reached him it was at least a year and a 

 half old, and probably more. The same species 

 has recently been made the subject of some very 

 interesting observations by Petrunkewitch, who 

 obtained numerous living specimens from Texas and 

 kept them in captivity ; unless carefully packed, they 

 bore the railway journey badly, and it was above all 

 things necessary to supply them with water. 



The captives were fed on grass-hoppers, crickets, 

 cockroaches and wolf-spiders, but they ate sparingly, 

 one grass-hopper sufficing for three days in the 

 summer, while in the winter hardly any food at all 

 was taken. 



The sense of touch is extremely well developed 

 in these spiders, but in sight, hearing and smell they 

 are strangely deficient. No response whatever, was 

 obtained to either high or low notes. A cricket sang 

 for hours quite close to a spider which had been kept 

 hungry for several days, without attracting any 

 attention. It is very remarkable, by the way, that 

 insects show no instinctive dread of these formidable 

 creatures, not attempting to keep at a distance, and 

 indeed frequently running over them in trying to 

 find a way out of the cage. Nor do the spiders seem 

 to be at all guided by smell ; they evince no know- 

 ledge of the presence of insects which emit a strong 

 odour, nor do they react to such tests as those to 

 which the garden-spider was subjected unless strong 



