292 TROPICAL SPIDERS AND SCORPIONS 



artifice of the lynx, the spiders may naturally be expected to be 

 nftost numerous in the torrid zone, where nature has provided them 

 with the greatest abundance of food. There also, where so many 

 beetles, flies, and moths attain a size unknown in temperate re- 

 gions, we find the spiders growing to similar gigantic dimensions, 

 and forming webs proportioned to the bulk of the victims 

 which they are intended to ensnare. 



In some parts of Makololo, Dr. Livingstone saw great numbers 

 of a large beautiful yellow-spotted spider, the webs of which were 

 about a yard in diameter. The lines on which these webs were 

 spun, extended from one tree to another, and were as thick as 

 coarse thread. The fibres radiated from a central point, where 

 the insect waited for its prey. The webs were placed per- 

 pendicularly, and a common occurrence in walking was to get 

 the face enveloped in them, as a lady is in a veil. 



By means of their monstrous webs many giant-spiders of the 

 tropical zone are enabled to entangle not only the largest 

 butterflies and moths, but even small birds. Tremeyer tells us 

 that there are spiders in Mexico which extend such strong nets 

 across the pathways, that they strike off the hat of the passer 

 by ; and at Groree and in Senegal several spiders spin threads so ^ 

 strong as to be able to bear a weight of several ounces, and 

 which no doubt would be made use of for twine, if the negroes 

 did not already possess vegetable fibres in abundance fit for the 

 purpose. In the forests of Java, Sir Greorge Staunton saw 

 spider-webs of so strong a texture that it required a sharp knife 

 to cut one's way through them ; and many other similar ex- 

 amples might be mentioned. 



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, Koch) has two 

 enormous recurved conical spines, proceeding upwards from the 

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

 entire spider. 



