BY W. J. RAINBOW. 531 



English arachnologist says*: — "Dr. Thorell was necessarily 

 unacquainted with an undoubted Epeirid (a native of New 

 Zealand, and as yetundescribed), observed and beautifully figured 

 by Dr. Llewellyn Powell, belonging to the genus Arachnura, 

 Vinson. This spins only a few irregular threads, crossing each 

 other at various places, among twigs or small branches and stems 

 of herbaceous plants, very similar to some spiders of the genus 

 Theridion, family Theridioides." 



Often when wandering along countiy roads the eye of the 

 traveller lights upon some huge web, the outer lines or guys of 

 which are frequently from 30 to 40 feet in length, and occasionally 

 €ven more. Sometimes these lines ai'e stretched fi-om tree to 

 tree, across roads over which there is constant vehicular traffic, 

 and at other times bridging streams. On one occasion I saw a 

 web, the main line of which was thrown athwart the South Head 

 Road, near Belle Vue Hill, the objects to which the ends were 

 attached being a tree on one side and a telegraph post on the 

 other. By a well-directed stone I succeeded in bringing the 

 builder down. It proved to be Epnira herioue, L. Koch. It is 

 remarkable, considering how fragile these structures are, the 

 amount of wind pressure they can bear — a fact that can only be 

 explained by their elasticity. The time when orb-weavers are 

 most active is after sunset. It is then that they fabricate their 

 orbitular snares. Usually from half-an-hour to forty minutes is 

 sufficient to complete the work. The long bridge-lines, so far as 

 my observations have gone, and I have noted a good many, have 

 always been wind-borne, and, moreover, their length is affected 

 by this agency, that is to say, a spider when setting out upon the 

 task of constructing a web can have no choice in the selection of 

 a suitable attachment opposite to the one from which it emits its 

 thread. The line thrown out is carried by the air-current, and 

 continues to float until the free end strikes some object to which 

 it adheres. There may be other equally suitable objects nearer 

 than the one to which it finally attaches, but they escape for the 



* Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Vol. vi., 4tli Series, 1870, p. 116. 



