372 - ARACHNIDA ARANEAE chap. 



Pickard-Cambridge has more than once seen it seize and over- 

 come a bee which had visited the flower in search of honey. He 

 has also observed it in the blossoms of rose and furze bushes.^ 



An Epeirid {Tetragnatha extcnsa) resembles Tibellus in its 

 method of concealing itself when alarmed. It also possesses an 

 elongated abdomen, of a grey-green tint, which it closely applies 

 to one of the twigs among which it has stretched its net, at the 

 same time extending its four long anterior legs straight before it, 

 and in this position it lies perdu, and is very easily overlooked. 

 Another Orb -weaver, Epeira cucurhitina, is of an apple -green 

 colour, which is admirably calculated to conceal it among the 

 leaves which surround its snare. 



Most of our English Attidae, or Jumping -spiders, imitate 

 closely the prevailing tone of the surfaces on which they are 

 accustomed to hunt. This will be recognised in the familiar 

 striped Wall-spider, Salticus scenicus, and we may also mention 

 the grey Attus inibescens, which affects stone walls, and the 

 speckled Attus saltator, which is hardly distinguishable from the 

 sand which it searches for food. 



Examples may also be found among the Lycosidae or Wolf- 

 spiders. Of the prettily variegated Lycosa pieta, Pickard-Cam- 

 bridge says : " Much variation exists in the extent of the different 

 portions of the pattern and in their depth of colouring, these 

 often taking their prevailing tint from the colour of the soil in 

 which the spider is found. The best marked, richest coloured, 

 and largest examples are found on sandy and gravelly heaths, 

 where there is considerable depth and variety of colouring. . . . 

 But on the uniformly tinted greyish - yellow sandhills between 

 Poole and Christchurch I have found a dwarf, pale yellow-brown 

 variety, with scarcely any dark markings on it at all, the legs 

 being of a uniform hue, and wholly destitute of dark annuli." ^ 



Mimicry. — In the island of Portland, a locality remarkable 

 for the number of species peculiar to itself, there is found a spider, 

 Micaria scintillans, very closely resembling a large blackish ant 

 which frequents the same neighbourhood. Its movements, more- 

 over, are exceedingly ant-hke, as it hurries along in a zigzag 

 course, frequently running up and down grass stems after the 

 manner of those insects. It is a great lover of sunshine, and 

 disappears as soon as the sun is obscured by a passing cloud. 

 ' Spiders of Dorset, 1870-1881, p. 292. ^ 7j^-^_ j,_ 3Q0. 



