410 Mr. F. Enock on the 



spider held on. In a quarter of an hour it had turned 

 the bee completely round, now holding it by its head. 

 After ten minutes' hard tugging, the spider pulled it 

 through and down, a very large rent | in. by ^ in. having 

 been made in the tube. In five minutes the spider 

 returned, and commenced pulling the torn edges together 

 until they almost touched ; it then retired for twenty 

 minutes. At 1.25 it returned, reversed its position, spun 

 a few threads across the rent, and then once more 

 retired, this time for close upon an hour, when it came 

 up and finished mending the rent, leaving it perfectly 

 joined — ^^just two hours after the AntJiophora was seized. 



I caught another Anthophora, and held it to a tube 

 which had not been opened since October, 1883, a very 

 hard and dry one, protruding about two inches from the 

 bank. The moment the bee set foot upon it, it was 

 seized from behind and underneath. A quarter of an 

 hour the spider was trying to reverse the bee, for it 

 seemed to know it could not draw the bee down tail first. 

 I was called away for twenty-five minutes, but on my 

 return I found the bee had disappeared and the rent had 

 been repaired. Six days after, I noticed the spider had 

 ejected the dry and mutilated remains of the AntJiophora. 

 One large Atypiis seized and dragged down two large 

 blow-fiies in ten minutes. 



Jail) ISth, 1884. — At 10 a.m. I offered a Stomoxys to 

 the immature male Atypus, whose tube was attached to 

 the side of a bell-glass for about 1|- in. high. I placed 

 the glass so that the sun shone on to the tube, then 

 taking the Stomoxys by the wings I allowed it to touch 

 the tube, and, having previously arranged my magnifier, 

 I could see through the aerial part of the tube. Directly 

 the fly moved, up came the spider with a rapid but 

 stealthy step, until it was exactly under the fly, then 

 throwing its head back it opened its falces as wide as 

 possible, the fangs being almost at right angles to the 

 upriyht tube ; a moment's pause, just like a cat about to 

 spring upon a bird, then a lightning-like thrust, driving 

 the fangs through and just over the thorax of the fly, 

 closing them with a crunch ; then backing, it pulled the 

 fly through and down, but did not repair the rent until 

 the following niylit. 



I then tried one with a worm, which was seized, the 

 worm struggling so hard that it pulled itself in two, the 



