iO The South Australian Naturalisi. 



Oil his part but a few hours ago?. Had jealousy been respon- 

 sible for this horrible happening? No, it could not have been 

 that, for no rival could enter that bag. Was it reason or 

 instinct which had i)recipitated the tragedy? Surely not 

 reason: it must have been *'the noble instinct of the savage." 

 They were imprisoned and overtaken with hunger. He was 

 full-grown, and felt the pangs far less than she. Certainly she 

 was also full-grown, but then her sixty eggs were developing 

 and absorbing energy from her body. Her hunger was in- 

 creased, and Avith the constant thwarting of the natural desire 

 for food the tendenc,y to action became irrepressible, and 

 seizing her spouse with her front legs she, by reason of her 

 superior weight, bore him to the ground and fastened her jaws 

 into his neck; but not before he had torn from her shoulder 

 a gauzy wing. 



Pood she must have, or she and her eggs would perish and 

 the continuance of her species be endangered. The dominant 

 instinct was to appease her hunger, and without compunction 

 she did so. First his head was eaten, and then the body. 

 Nothing w^as left but the hard wing-cases and chitinous cover- 

 ings to the legs. Her hunger was appeased, and the possibility 

 of egg ])roduction assured. Did she live to achieve her highest 

 purpose? Yes. The loss of one wing rendered her unsightly 

 in a neatly-arranged collection, and so she was set at liberty on 

 another hn^h — the rendezvous of flies and bees on North 

 Terrace. 



SPIDERS IN CAPTIVITY. 



By T. W. Nettelbeck. 



Most entomologists engaged in making a collection pay but 

 scant attention to the spicier, owing to the fact that it belongs 

 to a different sub-kingdom in zoology. It belongs to the group 

 Arachmidae, and having, therefore, different anatomical con- 

 struction, having eight legs, head and thorax in one piece, while 

 the true insect never has more than six legs, and its head joins 

 the thorax by a supple neck. Thus the spider is very different 

 and passes mostly unnoticed, while the eager entomologist 

 searches for his true insect amongst the rocks, bark, or herbage. 

 I have always found the spider a most interesting creature and 

 a fascinating pet. To take a large spider alive requires great 



