1915.] F.H. Gravety: Indian Insects, Myriapods, etc. 537 
Further notes on the habits of Nephila maculata (? and other 
species) are given by Cunningham (‘‘ Plagues and Pleasures’’ , 
pp. 203-5 and 210) and Fischer (J.B.N.H.S. XX, pp. 526-528 
and 887-8, pairing habits). Brief notes on the habits of this 
species and of a few other Argiopids found in the Malay Peninsula 
are recorded by Flower (J. Straits R. Asiatic Soc., No. 36, July 
1901, pp. 43-4). 
Argiope catenulata seems to be confined, near Calcutta,! to the 
Salt Lakes area, where it spins an orb-web surrounded by numerous 
irregular lines between bushes of the low holly-like mangrove, 
Acanthus tlicifolius. Argiope pulchella, which is common among 
larger bushes in the Salt Lakes area, as well as elsewhere, spins a 
simple orb-web. 
Orsinome marmorea spins large and more or less horizontal 
webs between rocks above rapidly running streams at an altitude 
of about 1,500 ft. in the Cochin Ghats. Several webs are usually 
grouped together ; often they are stretched above waterfalls. 
When the spiders are disturbed they fall into the water, which 
washes them away. When they reacha rock they cling to it, 
and remain an inch or two below the surface till danger is over. 
Males and females were sometimes found together in the middle 
of a web with their heads in contact. Presumably they were pair- 
ing, but I had not time to investigate this fully. 
Herennia ornatissima spins its orb-web close to a tree-trunk. 
Dr. Sutherland tells me that at Kalimpong he has found the female 
in the middle of her web, and sometimes the male in the web 
with her. In Cochin I always found the female? in a small 
silk-lined concavity on the tree-trunk near the web; and when a 
male was present it was in a similar nest close beside that of the 
female. The specimens were brownish in colour and they were 
very difficult to distinguish from irregularities of the bark. 
The Indian species of Cyrtophora, like those of other countries, 
spin more or less dome-shaped webs ; and most of them are more 
or less gregarious. The web of C. citricola is spun horizontally 
in the midst of an irregular mass of supporting lines, and has 
the characteristically fine mesh and delicate texture of the domes 
constructed by its allies; but it is scarcely raised in the centre. 
Mr. W. H. Phelps informs me that the web is always made at 
night. First radial lines are constructed as if for an ordinary orb- 
web. Then the spiral is commenced, and fresh radii are run out 
from time to time between the others, this filling in of the radial 
spaces being done piece by piece, not by a succession of complete 
whorls. When the web is about half finished the centre is raised 
as far as it is intended to be by the attachment of lines from 
above, after which it is completed. 
! It is also recorded from places such as Peradeniya, where conditions are 
quite unlike those of the Calcutta Salt [I.akes and there is no Acanthus 
ilictfoltus. 
2 I did not however, find many specimens. 
