168 ENTOMOLOGICAL NOTES. 



perpendicularly to the stone walls which usually form our fences; their webs 

 are formed of concentric circles, with transverse radii from the centre, where 

 the insect generally stations itself. In very clear weather when the sun shines 

 upon the walls, the web is very conspicuous, and easily avoided by the flies. 

 To obviate this inconvenience the Spider retires from the centre to a crevice 

 in the wall, where some of the transverse radii are fastened, and by its foot, 

 or, perhaps properly, hands, gives the whole web a rapid jerking motion, which 

 renders it, for the time, perfectly invisible. This motion is long continued, 

 with only short intervals, and I think is evidently the result of design and 

 contrivance the more certainly to ensnare and secure its prey. This may 

 probably have been noticed by authors, but having read very little on the 

 subject, I am not aware whether or not it is generally known." 



Since sending the notice from my father's papers, of the method practised 

 by some Spiders in order to render their webs invisible, I have met with 

 the following, which I think may refer to a different species of Spider, that 

 renders not only the web but itself invisible, by the communication of a 

 rapid vibratory motion; and I observe the term hands is used, as my father 

 suggests it probably should be, instead of feet. This species is found amongst 

 furze bushes, and operates from the centre of the web, whilst my father's 

 were found on the sunny side of stone fences, and performed the vibrations 

 from the periphery of the web. I thought that it might be interesting if 

 this account was placed in juxtaposition with my father's, though I am not 

 aware to what extent, or how long, the facts may have been known to Natu- 

 ralists. The extract is from a recent work, entitled ''My schools and school- 

 masters, etc.,'' By Hugh Miller. — John Fothergill, M. R. C. S. 



''The large Diadem Spider, which spins so strong a web, that, in pressing 

 my way through the furze thickets, I could hear its white silken cords crack 

 as they yielded before me, and which I found skilled, like an ancient magician, 

 in the strange art of rendering itself invisible in the clearest light, was an 

 especial favourite; though its great size, and the wild stones I have read 

 about the bite of its congener the Tarantula, made me cultivate its acquaintance 

 somewhat at a distance. Often, however, I have stood beside its large web, 

 when the creature occupied its place in the centre, and touching it with a 

 withered grass stalk, I have seen it suddenly swing on the lines "with its 

 hands," and then shake them with a motion so rapid, that, like Carathus, 

 the mother of the Caliph Vatheck, who, when her hour of doom came, 'glanced 

 off in a rapid whirl, which rendered her invisible,' the eye failed to see either 

 web or insect for minutes together. Nothing appeals more powerfully to the 

 youthful fancy than those coats, rings, and amulets of eastern lore, that 

 conferred on their possessors the gift of invisibility, and I deemed it a great 

 matter to have discovered for myself, in living nature, a creature actually 

 possessed of am amulet of this kind, that, when danger threatened, could rush 

 into invisibility." 



