xl 



suggestion being that the insects thereby obtain protection from foes, or 

 that in some other way the resemblance is advantageous to them in the 

 struggle for existence. The following observations, made by my friend 

 Mr. Thomas Nottidge, of Ashford, appear to afford other instances of the 

 same class of phenomena, in which spiders are the possessors of the pro- 

 tective or imitative resemblance: — ' On the 11th May, 1878,' Mr. Nottidge 

 writes, ' in the beech woods on the escarpment of the challv between West- 

 well and Cbariug, Kent, I noticed the number and variety of the insects 

 that visited the blossom of- the wayfaring tree, Viburnum, and on taking the 

 blossom in my hand, I found a spider most beautifully disguised both for 

 protection and for the easier capture of her prey. The spider was all over 

 of a pure creamy white, the exact tint of the flower, and her abdomen 

 exactly resembled the unopened buds — of wliich there were many in each 

 cyme of blossom — not only in colour, but also in size and shape. Nearly 

 every buncli of Idossom was occupied by one or more of these spiders, the 

 young and half-grown ones being just like the full-grown ones in colour. 

 The male was not so well disguised as the I'eraale, having a few black dots 

 on his back and some black about the head and jaws. Many of the spiders 

 had captured insects, and one had got a large drone-fly, which was still 

 alive, and which after a long fight escaped. These spiders are hunters, not 

 web-spinners ; but I was amused to observe that one which I took in my 

 hand ran up to the highest point at once, and holding up the abdomen let 

 a thread run out on the gentle breeze — the sun was shining and the thread 

 was quite visible — until it touched a twig about sixteen inches from my 

 hand ; he then let himself drop from my hand and ran up the thread to the 

 twig ; I thought this mode of escape was adopted by spiders only as a 

 dernier ressort. I had no means of carrying off one of these spiders. What 

 becomes of them later in the summer? for as soon as the white blossoms 

 are gone, his colour would be a great disadvantage.' 



" I was unable to accept an invitation to see these spiders in situ, 

 but two or three weeks later I received a further communication from 

 Mr. Nottidge. 'On the 10th June,' he writes, 'at Petersfield, Hants, 

 I found a white spider, very similar to, if not identical with, the one 

 I described to you : he was in the blossom of the wild guelder-rose. He 

 differed from the one I found near Westwell in having reddish brown spots 

 on the side of the abdomen, but they were uot sufficiently distinct to 

 interfere with the completeness of his disguise. There were many bushes 

 of the mealy Viburnuvi close by, but the blossom was over. On the same 

 day, and in the same locality, I found a very similar spider on the blossom 

 of Orchis maculata, but in this case the spots on the sides of the abdomen 

 were large, of a dark red-brown colour, and very sharply defiined; and when 

 the spider stood in his usual position, with his head downwards, these spots 

 verv closely resembled in size, shape, relative position, and — at a yard'b 



