TROnCAL SPIDERS. 213 



These large spiders so temptingly suspended in mid-air in 

 the forest glades, seem very much exposed to the attacks of 

 birds, but in many cases it has pleased Nature to invest them 

 with large angular spines sticking out of their bodies in every 

 kind of fashion. Some are so protected by these long prickles 

 that their bodies resemble a miniature ' chevaux de frise,' and 

 could not by any possibility be swallowed by a bird without pro- 

 ducing a very unpleasant sensation in his throat. One very 

 remarkable species (Gasteracantha arcuata) has two enormous 

 recurved conical spines, proceeding upwards from the posterior 

 part of the body, and several times longer than the entire 

 spider. 



Other Aranese, to whom these means of defence have been 

 denied, are enabled by their colour to escape the attacks of many 

 enemies, or to deceive the vigilance of many of their victims. 

 Thus, those that spend their lives among the flowers and foliage 

 of the trees are, in general, delicately and beautifully marked 

 with green, orange, black, and yellow, while those which fre- 

 jquent gloomy places are clothed with a dark-coloured and 

 [dingy garb, in accordance with their habits. In the forests 

 [about Calderas, in the Philippine Archipelago, Mr. Adams saw 

 [handsomely coloured species of Theridia crouching among the 

 )liage of the trees: while numbers of the same genus of a 

 )lack colour were running actively about among the dry dead 

 leaves that strewed the ground, looking, at a little distance, like 

 [odd-shaped ants, and no doubt deceiving many an antago- 

 [iiist by this appearance. One species, which knew it was being 

 matched, placed itself upon a diseased leaf, where it remained 

 [uite stationary until after the departure of the naturalist, who, 

 [had he not seen the sidelong movement of the cunning little 

 jreature in the first instance, would not have been able to dis- 

 tinguish its body from the surface of the leaf. While, in 

 this case, dulness of colour served as a defence, the vividly- 

 joloured spiders that live among the foliage and flowers no 

 loubt attract many flies and insects by reason of their gaudily- 

 dinted bodies. 



One of the most remarkable instances of the harmony of 



jolour between the Aranese and their usual haunts was noticed 



)y Mr. Adams among dense thickets formed by the Abrus pre- 



itoria, where he found a spider with a black abdomen marked 



