216 A NATURALIST IN BORNEO 



This seems to be the proper place in which to 

 describe an experiment which I conducted with a 

 large spider, Nephila maculata, because I am conceited 

 enough to believe that this experiment did yield 

 information of importance, since it was carried out 

 as nearly as possible under perfectly natural condi- 

 tions. On Mt. Matang, one July morning in 1902, as 

 I was setting forth for a little insect-hunting walk, 

 I almost blundered into a large outspread web of 

 Nephila maculata, with the huge body of the maker 

 hanging in the centre waiting for prey. I just avoided 

 wreaking a catastrophic disaster on the elegant struc- 

 ture, and, as I recoiled, a little Dammar Bee, Melipona 

 apicalis, flew into the web. The behaviour of the 

 spider was interesting to watch. She 1 rushed towards 

 the bee, cut with her falces all the strands in which 

 it was entangled, retaining hold, however, of one 

 strand at the end of one hind-leg. The bee thus 

 hung suspended. The spider then violently agitated 

 its hind-leg, until it succeeded in jerking the bee some 

 distance away from the web. The bee spent a little 

 time in cleaning itself, then spread its wings and flew 

 away. This incident suggested to me that I might 

 introduce different insects into the spider's web and 

 observe the results. My first experiment was with a 

 second specimen of Melipona apicalis, which the spider 

 treated as it had treated the first. Then I introduced 

 Melipona lacteifasciata, a fulvous species with white 

 wing-tips ; this the spider seized in her jaws, but after 

 mouthing it a little dropped it, and it fell to the 

 ground, so this bee, too, was evidently not to the 



1 The male of this species is a minute creature not one-tenth 

 the size of the female. 



