THE AERONAUTIC OR BALLOONING HABIT. 



2r.9 



A comparison of tliis table witli tlie cliart will at once show Uial the 

 dotted lines in the latter, which indicate the geographical belt over which 

 Venatoria is disti'ibuted correspond, with remarkable general exactitude, 

 with the belt over which the North Trades blow. It is not, therefore, an 

 improbable conjecture that this distribution has been accomplished by 

 means of those winds and the spider's habit of aerial flight. It is, of 

 course, supposable that conunerce, following largely the same belt, may 

 have originated or aided this distribution. But certain facts in the hi.story 

 of the spider seem to forbid this hypothesis. 



Some of the facts are : First, the early discovery of the species as al- 

 ready widely distributed ; second, its presence at so many different insulai' 

 points nearly or altogether contemporaneously with first visits 

 by commercial nations; third, the existence of the species or its 

 close allies among the fauna of the tropical interiors of conti- 

 nents far distant from coast lines; fourth, the variations, chiefly 

 in color, which have been observed, and which would seem to 

 require for their development a longer period than that which has tran- 

 spired since the commencement of commercial communication with the 

 localities in which the variations have been wrought. While one may 

 not conclude with absolute certainty from these facts, they warrant the 

 theory that the Huntsman spider has become cosmopolitan by the action 

 of Nature, independent of the aid of man. 



Not Ar 

 tiflcial 

 Distri- 

 bution. 



Table op Distribution North of the Equator. 



Locality. 



Latitude. 



8. 



9. 



10. 



n. 



12. 

 13. 



u. 



In, 

 U), 

 17, 



Palmyra Island 6° N. 



Pelew Islands 7°- 8° N. 



Loo-Choo Islan.ls 25°-29° N. 



.Tapan 30°-40° N. 



Xicobar Islands 6°-10° N. 



Tranqiieliar, India 12° N. 



[.il)eria, Atrial 5°- T ■^^• 



Seni^gal, Africa 17° N. 



Martinique, North America 15° N 



Santa Cruz 



Jamaica 



Cuba 



Florida 



Yucatan 



!\Iexico, .lalajia 



California 



Oahu, Sandwich Islands 



18° N. 

 18° N. 

 20°-23° N. 



30° N. 



20° N. 



20° N. 



•? 



20° N. 



Authority. 



« 

 L. Kocli. 



» 

 Biick. 

 Kabricins. 



Walckenaer. 



WaU'kenaer. 



* 



* 

 L. Kocli. 



I was so impressed by the above chain of facts, and so confident of 



the inference therefrom, that I ventured to predict that corre- 



'^. ^^' spending results would follow a comparison of specimens coUect- 



iction. ^j ^^^^^^ ^^^^ quartei-s; that is to say, they would be found to lie 



within the belt of the North or South Trade Winds. The only specimens at 



