THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY 



No. 134. NOVEMBER 1847. 



XXVII. — Notes on the Habits of certain Exotic Spiders. By 

 Arthur Adams, late Assistant Surgeon of H.M.S. Sama- 

 rang. 



" Ut araneoli, tenuem formavimus orsum." — Virgil, Culex, v. 2. 



Spiders are among the most artful of created creatures ; their 

 whole life consists of one continued course of craft and stratagem, 

 whether they sneak about on the surface of leaves, as green as 

 their own emerald bodies, and surprise the poor flies that venture 

 to approach within the range of their fatal spring ; whether they 

 gloomily lurk in holes, " specus ipsa qua concameratur architec- 

 tura \" — or under the shade of dingy tents, " contra frigora quanto 

 villosior \" — and spring upon insects that chance to pass their 

 door, "cum vero captura incidit, quam vigilans et paratus ad 

 cursum \" — whether they lie supine in the broad daylight, mo- 

 tionless in their wide-spread treacherous toils, and, having seen 

 their victim fairly entangled, wrap him up in a winding-sheet of 

 their own manufacture ; or whether, simulating the surface of the 

 ground on which they live, they course their prey with untiring 

 assiduity, and, having run it down, suck its blood with tiger-like 

 ferocity. Spiders are the originators of spinning and weaving, 

 and have been pressed into the service of the manufacturers of 

 silk and satin, together with those 



" Spinning worms 

 That in their green shops weave the stnooth-hair'd silk," 



and, more particularly on account of their habits, deserve to ex- 

 cite more interest than they meet with. Unheeded, or regarded 

 with repulsive loathing by the " cui bono V people of the present 

 generation, spiders have adorned the page of the poet and philo- 

 sopher in more ancient times. Has not Ovid sung the misfor- 

 tunes of that Lydian maiden, daughter of Idmon, who, proud of 

 her talent in the art of weaving, dared to challenge even Minerva 

 Ann. $ Mag. N Hist. Vol.xx. 21 



