6 



their mother's back. I did not measure these young spiders, 

 but tliey coiild not have exceeded two milhmetres in length, 

 and evidently were at most but a few weeks old. 



Most of my experiments in feeding were made with this 

 mother ; she would capture and eat an unlimited number of 

 flies. They were always caught by a rapid movement of the 

 the first (and occasionally the second) pair of legs and of the 

 palpi, sweeping the victim in toward her cheliceres ; once 

 between these, there was no escape ; they were squeezed until 

 the juices could be seen to exude, were turned over and over, 

 squeezed again, and finally dropped. To see what the crea- 

 ture would do if an insect came in her way while she was 

 feeding, I put other flies into the enclosure, after she had been 

 sucking one for twenty minutes. In an instant she was on 

 the alert, raising herself partially upon her legs and placing the 

 front pair and palpi in position ; at the first opportunity another 

 fly was seized and stowed away beside the first ; a third and fourth 

 were shortly added and the whole horrid mass rolled over and 

 over for fresh squeezes for an hour or more. When these were 

 dropped I offered her some more, and although her appetite 

 must have been appeased, she seized them with the same avid- 

 ity, attacking them much as if she were possessed of some 

 venomous spite against them, all astir if she missed one, and 

 never tiring of fresh prey. Again she enfolded four carcasses 

 in her capacious jaws, but the attempt at a fifth caused her to 

 drop one, which she did not seek to regain. She squeezed 

 them only a short time (proving that she was not "v^ry hungry), 

 then dropped them, and the young ones ran down their mother's 

 legs, and after foraging for a while found them ; whether they 

 were attracted by the odor of food, or some signal was given 

 by the mother, I cannot say, but they had been remaining 

 quiet, almost immovable, upon her back for nearly twenty- 

 four hours, and only now left her protection. After this they 

 roamed and returned at will and without concert, and once I 

 saw the mother with a freshly caught fly in the grasp of her 

 deadly cheliceres, while one of the little ones was seated upon 

 the lower end of the fly sharing in the meal. 



After eating, the spider cleans its jaws by thrusting the tips 



