THE AERONAUTIC OR BALLOONING HABIT. 



269 



A comparison of this table with the chart will at once show that the 

 dotted lines in the latter, which indicate the geographical belt over which 

 Venatoria is distributed correspond, with remarkable general exactitude, 

 with the belt over which the North Trades blow. It is not, therefore, an 

 improbable conjecture that this distribution has been accomplished by 

 means of those winds and the spider's habit of aerial flight. It is, of 

 course, supposable that commerce, following largely the same belt, may 

 have originated or aided this distribution. But certain facts in the history 

 of the spider seem to forbid this hypothesis. 



Some of the facts are: First, the early discovery of the species as al- 

 ready widely distributed ; second, its presence at so many different insular 

 points nearly or altogether contemporaneously with first visits 

 by commercial nations; third, the existence of the species or its 

 close allies among the fauna of the tropical interiors of conti- 

 nents far distant from coast lines; fourth, the variations, chiefly 

 in color, which have been observed, and which would seem to 

 require for their development a longer period than that which has tran- 

 spired since the commencement of commercial communication with the 

 localities in which the variations have been wrought. While one may 

 not conclude with absolute certainty from these facts, they warrant the 

 theory that the Huntsman spider has become cosmopolitan by the action 

 of Nature, independent of the aid of man. 



TABLE OF DISTRIBUTION NORTH OF THE EQUATOR. 



Not Ar- 

 tificial 

 Distri- 

 bution. 



LOCALITY. 



Palmyra Island . 

 Pelew Islands . . 

 Loo-Choo Islands 



Japan 



Nicobar Islands . 

 Tranquebar, India 

 Liberia, Africa 



LATITUDE. 



6 NT 



7- 8 N. 



25-29 N. 



30-40 N. 



6-10 N. 

 12 N. 



5- 9 N. 



Senegal, Africa 1 7 N. 



m- t* Tk^ ji * _ _ i r-r A" r 



Martinique, North America 



Santa Cruz 



Jamaica 



Cuba 



Florida 



Yucatan 



Mexico, Jalapa 



California 



Oahu, Sandwich Islands . 



15 N. 

 18 N. 

 18 N. 

 20-23 X. 



30 N. 

 20 N. 

 20 N. 



20 N. 



LONGITUDE (On.). 



163 W. 

 134 E. 

 128 E. 

 130-140 E. 

 96- 97 K. 

 80 E. 

 10 W. 

 W. 

 W. 

 W. 

 W. 



74-85 

 81 W. 

 82-91 W. 

 97 W. 

 109-117 W. 

 155-100 W. 



16 

 61 

 65 

 77 



W. 



AUTHORITY. 



* 

 L. Koch. 



Buck. 



Fabricius. 



* 



Walckenaer, 



Walckenaer 



L. Koch. 



I was so impressed by the above chain of facts, and so confident of 

 the inference therefrom, that I ventured to predict that corre- 

 sponding results would follow a comparison of specimens collect- 

 ed from all quarters ; that is to say, they would be found to lie 

 within the belt of the North or South Trade Winds. The only specimens at 



A Pre- 

 diction. 



