42* FOOD OF INSECTS. 



The last of the tribe of hunters that it is necessary to 

 particularize, are those which, like the tigers amongst 

 the larger animals, seize their victims by leaping upon 

 them, To this division belongs a very pretty small 

 banded species, Salticus scenicus, which in summer may 

 be seen running on every wall. 



To Walckenaer's swimmers, the last of his grand 

 tribes of spiders, including Argyroneta aquatica, &c., the 

 first line of the above quotation from Dr. Darwin is par- 

 ticularly applicable; for these actually seize their food by 

 diving under the water, their bodies being kept unwet 

 by a coating of air which constantly surrounds them. 

 Thus one single race of insects exemplify in miniature 

 almost all the modes of obtaining food which prevail 

 amongst predaceous quadrupeds the audacious attack 

 of the lion ; the wily spring of the tiger ; the sedentary 

 cunning of the lynx ; and the amphibious dexterity of 

 the otter. 



This general view of the stratagems by which the 

 spider tribe obtain their food, imperfect as it is, will, I 

 trust, have interested you sufficiently to drive away the 

 associations of disgust with which you, like almost every 

 one else, have probably been accustomed to regard these 

 insects. Instead of considering them as repulsive com- 

 pounds of cruelty and ferocity, you will henceforward 

 see in their procedures only the ingenious contrivance of 

 patient and industrious hunters, who while obeying the 

 great law of nature in procuring their sustenance, are ac- 

 tively serviceable to the human race in destroying noxious 

 insects. You will allow the poet to stigmatize them as 



" cunning and fierce, 



Mixture abhorred ! " 



but you will see that these epithets are in reality as 



