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



Truncatellce that fill the holes and corners of the rocks in every 

 part of these islands, which forms a convenient abode in these 

 small shells, lining them carefully with a fine silken tapetum. 

 Near the sea-coast a minute species of Pagurus was found occu- 

 pying these little truncated univalve shells, crawling about by 

 thousands. Our spider, however, is unable to move about with its 

 borrowed house in the manner of those pirate crabs, but either 

 sits sedentary in his den, or ventures forth at intervals on his 

 predatory hunting excursions. 



Among the rocks of a small islet near Quelpaart, the largest of 

 the Korean islands, there is a species of spider which forms a very 

 ingenious dwelling which may be compared to that of the swal- 

 low, whose nest affords such an important article in the gastro- 

 nomy of wealthy Mandarines, the Hirundo esculenta, but adhering 

 to the rough surface of the rock in a reversed position, resem- 

 bling a watch-pocket upside down. It is composed of a sub- 

 stantially woven silky material, and firmly secured by means of a 

 glutinous secretion. The ingenious little builder and proprietor 

 of this strange castle in the air lets himself down by a rope-lad- 

 der, or to speak less fancifully, by a fine spun web, which he ma- 

 nufactures for the purpose out of the substance of his body as 

 required, he himself serving the purpose of a weight, " deducit 

 stamina, ipso se pondere usus," as Pliny observes in his chapter 

 ' De Araneis/ 



The spiders of the Maiacoshima islands exhibit some very re- 

 markable forms. There is a curious Epeira with the dorsal sur- 

 face of the abdomen furnished with a radiated crown of hard 

 pointed processes, and the epidermis richly painted with brown 

 and gold. It spins a large and regular web in every brake and 

 bush. Another large and singular spider, with long slender legs 

 and an elongated body, black, and marked with yellow lunules and 

 patches, crawls among the foliage of the trees in the low woods 

 that occur in some parts of Pa-tchung-San. Another species of 

 the same genus is altogether black. I noticed this kind also in 

 the Bashee group. 



The Thelyphonus caudatus, or a closely-allied species, a curious 

 osculating link between the Scorpions and Tarantulas, is not un- 

 common in the islands of the Maiacoshimas. It remains gene- 

 rally concealed under logs of wood and under stones, and seems 

 to love dark damp forests as the seat of its depredations, living in 

 the society of the larvae of glow-worms, the scorpions, the Sco- 

 lopendrce, and a dingy-coloured species of Blatta. It is slow in 

 its movements, and when alarmed raises its stingless tail in a 

 threatening manner, but never attempts to use its chelicerse either 

 as organs of aggression or of defence. 



Never have I been better amused than when observing in the 



