CONTINUED. 333 



lated, lobed, spined, or furnished with hairy tufts. 

 These examples, 



" Whose shapes would make them, had they bulk and size, 

 More hideous foes than fancy can devise," 



taken at random during one or two excursions in the 

 woods, will tend to show what a wide field is open to the 

 naturalist in these regions of the sun, provided he has 

 nothing of more importance to engage his attention than 

 the investigation of Apterous insects. 



In the forests about Calderas, I collected some splendid 

 species of gold and silver-marked Tetragnatha. One, 

 which might be named T. nitens, has a dark, shining- 

 brown thorax, and a glittering silvery body, with five 

 black spots ; the legs banded with dark brown, and the 

 under side light black. It constructs a large, ingenious, 

 symmetrical web, and drops, when touched, to the 

 ground ; taking care, however, at the same time, to sus- 

 pend itself by a web, by means of which it ascends again, 

 when the enemy has departed. In the centre of its web, 

 it spins concentric circles, and thick, irregular mazes, 

 of a fine yellow colour, and often of very complicated 

 devices. When it falls to the ground, it folds up its legs, 

 and feigns death, all its members being perfectly rigid. 

 The Tetraffnatha have a remarkable habit of dividing 

 their eight legs, as they cling, head downwards, to the 

 centre of their toils, throwing out four directly forwards, 

 and four directly backwards. Some species, however, 

 have the third pair of legs extended straight out, in a 

 lateral direction. Another common species had a body 

 mottled with dark brown, and covered with white 

 markings ; legs brown, banded ; the thorax burnished 



