Chap. XX. SPIDERS— INSECTS. 409 



said to be caught in tliem. There are house-spiders, 

 tree -spiders, and ground-spiders. These spiders are 

 exceedingly useful, and rid the country of many un- 

 pleasant flies. How many times I have seen them 

 overpower prey which seemed much stronger than 

 themselves ! The web-spiders seemed to have but a 

 few enemies, but the house and wall-spiders, which 

 make no web, have most inveterate enemies in the 

 shape of two or three kinds of wasps. During the 

 day I have seen these wasps travelling along the 

 walls with a rapidity that astonished me, and, finally, 

 when coming to a spider, immediately pounce upon 

 the unfortunate insect and overpower it by the 

 quickness of the movements of their legs, and succeed 

 in cutting one after the other the legs of the sj^ider 

 close to the body, and then suck it, or fly away with 

 it to devour it somewhere else. 



I consider some species of ants, snakes, lizards, and 

 spiders as most useful, for they destroy a great 

 quantity of insect and other vermin. The great mois- 

 ture of the country I have visited, with its immense 

 jungle, is well adapted for the insect world, and 

 would prove a very rich field to a naturalist and 

 collector who would make it his special study and 

 business. I was surprised how closely several of 

 them mimicked or imitated other objects ; some looked 

 exactly like the leaves on which they most generally 

 remain ; others are exactly of the colour of the bark 

 of trees on which they crawl ; while others looked 

 exactly like dead leaves, and one or two like pieces 

 of dead branches of trees. Dragon-flies of beautiful 

 colour were met near the pools. 



