372 ARACHNIDA—-ARANEAE CHAP. 
Pickard-Cambridge has more than once seen it seize and over- 
come a bee which had visited the flower in search of honey. He 
has also observed it in the blossoms of rose and furze bushes.! 
An Epeirid (Tetragnatha extensa) resembles Tibellus in its 
method of concealing itself when alarmed. It also possesses an 
elongated abdomen, of a grey-green tint, which it closely applies 
to one of the twigs among which it has stretched its net, at the 
same time extending its four long anterior legs straight before it, 
and in this position it lies perdu, and is very easily overlooked. 
Another Orb-weaver, Hpeira cucurbitina, is of an apple-green 
colour, which is admirably calculated to conceal it among the 
leaves which surround its snare. 
Most of our English Attidae, or Jumping-spiders, imitate 
closely the prevailing tone of the surfaces on which they are 
accustomed to hunt. This will be recognised in the familar 
striped Wall-spider, Salticus scenicus, and we may also mention 
the grey Attus pubescens, which affects stone walls, and the 
speckled Attus saltator, which is hardly distinguishable from the 
sand which it searches for food. 
Examples may also be found among the Lycosidae or Wolf- 
spiders. Of the prettily variegated Lycosa picta, Pickard-Cam- 
bridge says: “ Much variation exists in the extent of the different 
portions of the pattern and in their depth of colouring, these 
often taking their prevailing tint from the colour of the soil in 
which the spider is found. The best marked, richest coloured, 
and largest examples are found on sandy and gravelly heaths, 
where there is considerable depth and variety of colouring. . . . 
But on the uniformly tinted greyish-yellow sandhills between 
Poole and Christchurch I have found a dwarf, pale yellow-brown 
variety, with scarcely any dark markings on it at all, the legs 
being of a uniform hue, and wholly destitute of dark annuli.” ° 
Mimicry.—In the island of Portland, a locality remarkable 
for the number of species peculiar to itself, there is found a spider, 
Micaria scintillans, very closely resembling a large blackish ant 
which frequents the same neighbourhood. Its movements, more- 
over, are exceedingly ant-like, as it hurries along in a zigzag 
course, frequently running up and down grass stems after the 
manner of those insects. It is a great lover of sunshine, and 
disappears as soon as the sun is obscured by a passing cloud. 
1 Spiders of Dorset, 1879-1881, p. 292. 2 Ibid. p. 360. 
