216 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



been previously slung by the Ichneumon, Pezomachus fas- 

 ciatus, and that their development, and consequent appear- 

 ance in the perfect state, would quite account for the mere 

 fragments of the parent that remained. 



I do not think for a moment that the young spiders could 

 have been capable (not perhaps from want of will, but from 

 want of power) of devouring a mature individual. The 

 young spiders which I saw — some dead, two alive — were evi- 

 dently not long from the egg ; and at this stage of life their 

 food seems to be, in some species certainly, but little more 

 than mere moisture ; probably in no case do they feed on 

 other than the smallest, tenderest insects. 



With regard to my supposition that the parent spider had 

 been stung by the parent Pezomachus, 1 have certainly never 

 heard of spiders in the perfect state being subject to the 

 attacks of Ichneumons, and 1 believe Mr. Smith said no 

 instance of it had ever come before him ; butll do not know 

 any a 'priori reason why they should not be liable to those 

 attacks. The large number of young spiders that appeared 

 in Mr. Smith's box shows, I think, that the eggs alone could 

 hardly have sufficed for the food of the larvae of six of the 

 Pezomachus ; and this would seem to compel us to resort to 

 the supposition of some of them having been bred out of the 

 parent spider. 



I have frequently observed the simple but very striking 

 mode of spiders capturing their prey, by dropping upon it 

 like a stone, that Mr. Smith speaks of, but not before in E. 

 apoclisa ; in seveial instances I have seen it in E. inclinata, 

 Walck, : in these instances the spider reascended to its 

 original position by running up its thread backwards : I 

 could see a quick motion of the legs, and although unable, 

 from the position I was in, to be quite certain, yet from what 

 I could see I concluded that the slack of the thread was 

 gathered in by the hind legs as the spider ascended : the 

 •ascents that I have observed were not so rapid or instan- 

 taneous as those Mr. Smith describes, but I think that a very 

 rapid movement, of the extremities merely, of the legs used 

 in climbing, might be difficult to see during so short a time 

 as the operation lasted, but would account for the swiftness 

 with which the ascents were made. 



Epeira apoclisa, Walck., is one of our most numerous as 



