70 The Irish Naturalist, April, 



trees of this kind ; and they were at times as much as four 

 feet from the ground. They were of two sizes : moulting and 

 brood-nests, the former abandoned or containing in several 

 instances a newly moulted animal with the moult beside it ; 

 and the latter old and empty or new and containing a female, 

 in two cases with the brood-mass attached and in one case 

 surrounded by the brood of free young. The discovery of 

 this animal was a piece of great good fortune, for it is new 

 to Ireland and unknown in Britain ; moreover it is the largest 

 Irish false-scorpion and the largest but one of the twenty or 

 more species which make up the false-scorpion- fauna of these 

 Islands. As to its identity I am submitting to the Irish 

 Naturalist a separate communication : the creature is already 

 known to science but under circumstances making it necessary 

 to give it a new name ; and the proposal is that it be called 

 Obisium Carpcnteri^ in honour of Professor Geo. H. Carpenter 

 to whom we are indebted for most of what we know of the 

 Arachnids of Ireland and much besides. 



While observing this creature I unexpectedly became aware 

 of the presence just overhead of another animal of equal in- 

 terest; and of remarkable accomplishments. Chancing to look 

 up I saw between two large branches of Arbutus at a place 

 where the}^ were between two and three feet apart, a delicate 

 and tightly stretched spider-snare of most unusual character. 

 It was triangular, and consisted of four radii, overlaid by a 

 limited number of cross-threads. Its trap line was horizontal 

 and ran out from the object of support to the apex of the 

 triangle, where three other threads diverged from it or from 

 each other, and formed with the distal part of the first men- 

 tioned line the four radii just referred to ; finall}' another 

 thread formed a more or less vertical base-line to which the 

 radii were attached ; and thus the whole structure, apart from 

 its cross-threads, was made up of but five lines ! Beneath the 

 trap-line, close to the branch to which it was attached, the 

 spider itself was clinging, back downwards, with the legs of 

 the first and second pairs extended in front ; it had evidently 

 hauled in the line so as to hold the snare on the stretch ; and 

 one could well imagine that it was ready at any moment to 

 release the snare with a snap for the better entanglement of 

 prey. The whole thing was in fact exactly what is seen in 

 the figures or descriptions of ^. ^^^ Thorell, Sordelli, Wilder, 



