Wilder.] 208 



and If satisfied that she can do so "with safety, will suddenly close with 

 the victim ; but If not, or if some foreign body is placed in the web, 

 then she will snip off with her jaws every line which supports it till it 

 drops to the earth ; this I saw done by several spiders, which had made 

 their webs In my room In South Carolina, with a dead snake six inches 

 in length. 



It is remarkable, that although these spiders possess eight eyes and 

 can evidently distinguish light from darkness, yet, so far as my 

 observation goes, they cannot see anything at all whether near or re- 

 mote ; they pay no attention to an object put close to them nor to the 

 quiet movements of any one about them, and will often rush by an 

 insect entangled In their web if it chance to cease its struggles before 

 the spider has accurately determined upon Its position ; it will then 

 slowly return to the center of the web and wait till another vibration 

 indicates the whereabouts of the Insect ; a fly offered to It upon the 

 point of a needle will not be noticed till It begins to buzz, when it will 

 be seized at once ; the hearing and touch are evidently very acute ; 

 the organ of the former sense Is not known ; the latter Is exercised by 

 the palpi and by the extremities of all the legs, especially those of the 

 first pair, which are continually used as feelers. How acute the sense 

 of smell Is I do not know. 



This spider is remarkably quiet in its habits, never leaving Its web 

 unless disturbed in some way, and It bears handling better than any 

 species with which 1 am acquainted. That It can bite is evident from 

 the size of the jaws and the firmness of their hold, and that the venom 

 Is active is shown by the speedy death of Its victims ; * but they never 

 attempt to bite unless provoked, and may be allowed to run over 

 one's flesh with impunity, care being taken not to remove them from 

 it suddenly or roughly for they are apt to hold on with the jaws when 

 the grasp of the legs Is not sufficient. The length and comparative 

 weakness of the legs renders It easy to put this spider In the only po- 

 sition In which any spider can be safely handled, namely with all the 

 legs held behind the back. In their webs they are active and sure- 

 footed, but slow and awkward on the ground or any plane surface. 

 They always prefer the light, and construct their webs where the sun 

 can reach them ; the young manifest the same instinct and always seek 

 the sunny side of a glass vessel containing them ; they also keep the 



*Black\vall, (Linn. Transactions, Vol. xxi. page 31-37) recounts experiments to 

 support his opinion that the bite of the larger British species causes no more injury 

 to man, to other spiders, or to insects tlian an ordinary puncture or laceration of 

 equal extent and severity; and the same author in his Spiders of Great Britain and 

 Ireland, Part 1, p. 2, does not even mention the word poison in speaking of the 

 colorless fluid emitted through tlie falces, but although we seldom hear of well au- 

 thenticated cases of injury from the bite of a spider, it would hardly be safe to sup- 

 pose all of them harmless. 



