196 The Naturalist in La Plata. 
the instinct manifests itself in the young spiders 
is taken as evidence. 
A more important matter, the intelligence of 
spiders, has not yet received tne attention it deserves. 
The question of insect intelligence—naturalists are 
agreed that insects do possess intelligence—is an 
extremely difficult one ; probably some of our con- 
clusions on this matter will have to be reconsidered. 
For instance, we regard the Order Hymenoptera as 
the most intelligent because most of the social 
insects are included in it; but it has not yet been 
proved, probably never will be proved, that the 
social instincts resulted from intelligence which has 
“Japsed.”” Whether ants and bees were more intel- 
ligent than other insects during the early stages of 
their organic societies or not, it will hardly be dis- 
puted by any naturalist who has observed insects 
for long that many solitary species display more 
intelligence in their actions than those that live in 
communities. 
The nature of the spider’s food and the diffi- 
culties in the way of providing for their wants 
impose on them a life of solitude: hunger, perpetual 
watchfulness, and the sense of danger have given 
them a character of mixed ferocity and timidity. 
But these very conditions, which have made it 
impossible for them to form societies like some insects 
and progress to a state of things resembling civiliza- 
tion in men, have served to develop the mind that 
is in a spider, making of him a very clever barbarian. 
The spider’s only weapon of defence—his falees— 
are as poor a protection against the assaults of his 
insect foes as are teeth and finger-nails in man 
