290 Mr. A. Adams on the Habits of certain Exotic Spiders. 



herself, and who for her presumption was changed by the jealous 

 goddess into a spider — Arachne ? 



" Fitque caput minimum ; toto quoque corpore parva est ; 

 In latere exiles digiti pro cruribus hserent ; 

 Cetera venter habet ; de quo tamen ilia remittit 

 Stamen, et antiquas exercet aranea telas*." 



Virgil, in enumerating the depredators of the bee-hives, such 

 as lizards, cockroaches, hornets and moths, has mentioned the 

 curious fact that 



" invisa Minervse 



Laxos in foribus suspendit aranea cassesf*" 



Another poet no less distinguished, Lucretius, in alluding to 

 the minute objects which our senses fail to detect on ordinary 

 occasions, enumerates among other things the slight aerial films 

 of the gossamer spider : — 



" neque aranei tenuia fila 



Obvia sentimus, quando obretimur euntes J." 



Julius Obsequens, in his work on Portents and Prodigies, ob- 

 serves that the standards of the legion, which had been left by 

 Pansa for the protection of Rome, seemed to have been bound 

 round or " netted over " with spiders' webs, which, in that age of 

 superstitious credulity, was regarded as an evil omen. In the days 

 of Pliny the motions of spiders were watched as being sure pro- 

 gnostics of the state of the weather, as they are indeed in our own 

 day,— 



" Multa aranea imbrium signa sunt." 



Pliny speaks admiringly of the astute cunning of the spider 

 when he observes his craft in keeping a little aloof from the 

 centre of his toil, " quam remotus a medio aliudque agentis si- 

 milis \ n and concealed in such a manner H ut sit necne intus ali- 

 quis, cerni non possit !" The Roman naturalist doubtless here 

 alludes to those sedentary Arachnidans to which Walckenaer has 

 given the name of " Tapiteles." Pliny considers these insects 

 well- worthy to be studied : " Araneorum natura, digna vel prce- 

 cipue admiratione." 



In the woods of Singapore I made a capture of a very large 

 and handsome species of Nephila which I do not find described. 

 The thorax is covered with a rich golden pubescence ; the terminal 

 half of the palpi is deep black, the penultimate half red above 

 and yellow beneath ; the chelicera are large and shining black ; 

 the abdomen has a black band at the anterior part, and poste- 

 riorly, and on the sides, large bright patches of yellow ; the 

 cephalothorax, where not hid by the silky hairs, is dark green 



* Ovid, Metamorpb. lib. vi. v. 142. 



t Georg. lib. iv. v. 246. J Lib. iii. v. 384. 



