Mr. A. Adams on the Habits of certain Exotic Spiders. 291 



with yellow striae ; the legs are black, with bright yellow rings at 

 the joints, and the thighs, on the under surface, are bright yellow ; 

 the eyes are black and shining. This species, which, from its 

 beauty, might be named Nephila ornata, constructs a very large, 

 strong, geometrical web, stretched vertically between low bushes. 

 At the island of Ternati I made a capture of a large and 

 splendid un described species of Nephila, which spins a very large 

 strong web among the bamboos. The body is liver-coloured, with 

 a silver horse-shoe mark ; the thorax is covered with a downy, 

 hoary, pubescence ; the shanks of the tibise of the two first pairs 

 of legs have a broad yellowish white band ; the other legs are 

 black. 



In the island of Panagatan I made a capture of another spe* 

 cies of Nephila, which I also consider as undescribed. The head 

 is blackish ; thorax silvery with black spots, and covered with a 

 downy pubescence ; legs chestnut-red, with the last joints black. 

 The body is of a light emerald green with numerous bright yel- 

 low spots ; the under surface is dull black. It forms a large, 

 strong, geometrical web, spreading from bush to bush, in the 

 centre of which it remains motionless with legs stretched out and 

 the head downwards. 



Among the Bashees or Batani group of islands, spiders of the 

 genera Nephila and Acrosorna are numerous. There is one very 

 large and showy species of the latter genus, which has a very 

 strange habit when alarmed of suddenly erecting the second pair 

 of legs with a rapid jerking motion, while, at the same time, he 

 gathers together all the other members, and shakes his web vio- 

 lently, in order, apparently, to intimidate his adversary, or perhaps 

 to ascertain the strength of his position. If, however, the cause 

 of alarm be continued, he coils himself up, while all his extremis 

 ties become rigid, as in death, and then, falling to the ground, he 

 remains like a small inanimate brown ball until the enemy has 

 departed. His cunning never forsakes him even in his greatest 

 emergency, for he continues all this while actually to maintain a 

 communication between himself and his web by means of a fine 

 thread, fixed at one end to the centre of his cunningly wrought 

 toil, and at the other attached to the spinneret at the extremity 

 of his abdomen. By means of this attenuated and invisible cord 

 he will climb up again when the danger is over, and resume his 

 old-established pastime of rapine and bloodsucking. Like some 

 unfledged animals with no more than two legs, these spiders are 

 the veriest cowards when menaced by those stronger than them* 

 selves, and the most unsparing tyrants when those of a weaker 

 nature are within their power. 



Among the islands of the Maiacoshima group I observed a 

 spider, belonging to the genus Attus, among the thousands of dead 



21* 



