342 SOME NEW ARANEID.E OF X.S.W., 



at Thornleigh. Both spider and fly were equal in size, small, and 

 brightly coloured, the thorax bright red, and the a,bdomen bright 

 green; the tips of the tarsi of the spider were white like the tips 

 of the wings of the fly, and each were found on the bracken 

 (Pleris aquilina, var. escaleniaj. When in want of a meal the 

 spider throws up two legs on each side of its body, loops them 

 together by hooking the tarsi, and beats the air vigorously, the 

 result being that the light striking through the loops gives the 

 appearance of a pair of bright transparent wings in raj^id motion, 

 and the fly, evidently convinced that it is one of its friends, 

 alights, only to fall a victim to a remorseless enemy. Mr. Skuse 

 also informed me that the spider in question is capable of jumping 

 a considerable distance — not less than six inches, and that when 

 in the air it has the apj)earance as if flying.* 



Summary. — Now it has been abundantly proved by Poulton, 

 Beddard, Wallace, Darwin, and others, that colouration and 

 mimicry in animals play an im^aortant and essential part either 

 for protection against natural enemies, as a vxu-niny to others, or 

 attraction for prey; and the more they are studied, and their life 

 histories investigated, the more clearly do we understand why the 

 tints of some animals are so bright and glaring, and others so 

 dull and sombre. After much patient work and investigation, 

 and the collection of a vast array of facts such as I have 

 enumerated, but which included observations from a far wider 

 field in animated Nature, Wallace divided living organisms into 

 five groups in his classification of " Organic Colours,"! namely: — 

 (\. — Protective colours. 



f{(i) of creatures specially pro- 

 tected. 



Animals. 



2. — Warning colours 



3. — Sexual colours. 

 ^4.^ — Typical colours. 



(/>) of defenceless creatures 

 mimickin" a. 



* Attiis volans, Canib., the " Flying Spitlur," which so far lias only been 

 found at Sydney, is small and exceedingly bright. 



t " Tropical Nature," p. 17'2. 



