THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 30 
rather an unusual proceeding, at least with the majority of 
the Arachnida, for, as a rule, I find them very shy, especially 
the larger specimens. 
Sept. 14th.—During the night a change had taken place 
among the spiders, and I found that the plucky little straw- 
coloured fellow had been either turned out or devoured by a 
new comer. This was a very much larger specimen, and 
seemed very shy, making off as soon as my hand came near 
the web; it also refused all my offers of food, and allowed 
more than one fly to get away without even attempting to 
capture them. I next tried to induce the spider in the 
corner to seize another fly, but without success; although the 
day before it had been so eager to take them, even from my 
hand. From this it would appear that certain of the 
Arachnida, after their appetite is satisfied, are disinclined to 
make any efforts to secure their prey, until hunger compels 
them to do so. But that it is not the case with all may be 
shown by the readiness of some of the Epéire to lay ina 
large stock of provisions. On one occasion a specimen of 
Epéira Diadema took from my hand six flies, one after the 
other, winding them all up, and securing them in the usual 
manner to the web. This reminds me of an interesting fact 
mentioned to me lately by a friend of mine, who is a close 
observer of spiders and their habits. Certain spiders, 
if they kill a number of flies that they cannot readily 
dispose of at once, will devour them one by one, as they 
require food, but keeping to the order in which they were 
killed; the fly captured first being eaten before any of dhe 
panera: and so on in order. 
Sept. 25th.—I noticed that numbers of ladybirds (esces 
nelle) had made their appearance, most of them being 
clustered in little groups in the corners of the window panes. 
The day before not one of them was visible. I placed one in 
the web of a large spider, located under the gas-pipe, to see 
what would be the result. The spider ran out at once, but. 
cautiously approached the little red insect, and then made a 
sort of peck at it with its falces, drawing back at once: this 
was repeated two or three times; then the spider slowly put 
forward one leg and touched the Coccinella on the back, but 
immediately withdrew it, and with that sudden erratic move- 
ment so noticeable in the Arachnida, turned round and 
