264 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA. 



subsists, frequently killing and eating her enamoured and too rashly approaching swain. 

 Among the Nephilse and other types in which the male is of such diminutive relative 

 size, these cannibalistic propensities are apparently held in abeyance. The husband is 

 too unsubstantial a morsel for even the tickling of his partner's palate, and his safety 

 is consequently secured by his very insignificance. On several occasions the writer 

 observed a male individual approaching the female here delineated without eliciting 

 from her any signs of hostility, with the exception that on one occasion, when 

 he slowly walked up to within reach of her terrible fangs, she simply pushed 

 him away with her palpi. Repulsed in front, he then made a strategic detour 

 to the rear, and was soon to be seen gaily disporting himself on the plump 

 outlines of his tolerant consort. Between the bloated body and chitinous head 

 or cephalothorax of the female, there was necessarily on the dorsal side a 

 conspicuous notch or cleft. To the Liliputian male this was a formidable 

 gulf, and he accordingly wove across it a silken carpet, which allowed him to 

 run with unimpeded ease from stem to stern of his veritable mountain of delight. 



The method by which these huge female Nephilse dispose of their captured 

 prey differs substantially from that pursued by the smaller members of the 

 tribe. The Spider class is, as a rule, represented as being of entirely suctorial 

 habits, feeding simply on the abstracted juices of their winged victims. In the 

 species now under consideration, large flies and even beetles taken in the web 

 were, as observed by the writer on several occasions, literally chewed up and 

 swallowed in their entirety. The irony of fate inseparable from greatness is aptly 

 illustrated in the specimen here figured. This Spider is itself a victim to a 

 minute blood-sucking sand-fly, apparently belonging to the genus Simulium. One of 

 these parasites, with immersed rostrum and distended body, may be observed adherent 

 to the right-hand margin of the Nephila's abdomen as presented to the reader. 

 Several of the little burnished-silver Argyrodes are, as were seen in life, stationed 

 at various points of the Nephila's web here delineated. As previously mentioned, 

 these diminutive commensal spiders add their slender lines, and devour those 

 smaller flies taken in their host's snares which are beneath his, or more correctly 

 her, august notice. In this manner they also probably fulfil a useful function, and 

 repay their host's hospitality by preying upon the minute parasitic sand-flies by 

 which the larger Arachnids are prone to being persecuted. 



Much more might be written concerning the Australian Arachnida. The 

 foregoing notes will, however, suffice to indicate how wide and interesting a field 



