BY W. J. EAIXBOW. 339 



mimicry of ants. Bertkavi* has recorded the fact from Prussian- 

 Rhineland and WestphaHa; Walsh, f from Bengal; Bates, | aiid 

 Peckham,§ from the United States ; Belt,j| from Nicaragua; 

 Mansel Weale,1I from Africa; Rothnej^, '--^ from Barrackpur; besides 

 other authors. The ants that are chiefly mimicked by spiders are 

 those that live on trees or shrubs. Owing to their powers of 

 biting, their acrid secretions which they can eject to a considerable 

 distance at an approaching enemy, the obnoxious odours emitted, 

 their dwelling in communities, and fighting battles in a united 

 body for the common good, they ai^e admirably protected from 

 birds and small animals that prey upon insects. This being so, 

 those spiders that miinick them and wander about their haunts 

 must enjoy an almost absolute immunity from dangers that beset 

 solitary wanderers. The Attldce do not spin webs for the capture 

 of pre}", but take their victims by stealth, stalking them, and 

 springing upon them from behind. So great is the resemblance 

 of these Atticlce to the ants that experienced collectors viewing 

 them when alive are frequently deceived, ft Not only does the 

 colour harmonise with that of the insect mimicked, but the 



* " Ameisenalmlichkeit iinter Spinnen," &c., Vei-hand. des natiirhist- 

 Vereines der Preussischeii Rheiiilandeund Westfalens (Bonn), xliii. (1886), 

 pp. 66-69. Bertkau also notes in the same paper that certain Dvamidoi 

 mimick ants, more particularly the genera PhruroUfhns and Micaria. 

 Among the Thomisidcn and Eptlriche, he observes, this kind of mimicry is 

 unknown; but the Theridiiike furnish a beautiful example in Fovmicina 

 mutinensis. On elms infested by Lasius and Formica b^ species of Lasceola 

 occurs, the male of which alone resembles ants. 



+ Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1891, No. 1, pp. 1-4. 



X Trans. Linn. Soc. Vol. xxiii. 



§ Papers of the Nat. Hist. Soc. Wisconsin, 1892, pp. 1-S3. 



II "Naturalist in Nicaragua," p. .314. 



IT "Nature," Vol. iii. p. 508. 



* • Journal of the Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. Vol. v. p. 44. 



tt ^Ir. W. W. Froggatt informs me that a small black Chcdcid on the 



tree trunks at Mosman's Bay mimicks a small jumpiug spider, and was 



taken by him as a spider. 



