378 SPIDERS 



At the Island of Ternate, I made a capture of a large 

 and splendid undescribed species of Nephila, which spins 

 a very wide, strong web among the bamboos. The body 

 is liver-coloured, with a silver horse-shoe mark ; the thorax 

 is covered with a downy, hoary pubescence ; the shanks 

 of the tibiae of the two first pairs of legs, have a broad 

 yellowish- white band ; the other legs are black. Besides 

 this, I have drawings of numbers of species not yet des- 

 cribed, as I always took an interest in these remarkable 

 insects. Spiders are among the most artful of living 

 creatures; their whole life consists of one unvaried course 

 of craft and stratagem ; whether they sneak about on the 

 surface of leaves, as green as their own emerald bodies, 

 and surprise the poor flies that venture to approach 

 within the range of their fatal spring; whether they 

 gloomily lurk in dusky holes, or under the shade of dingy 

 tents, and spring upon unwary insects that chance to 

 pass their door; whether they lie supine in the broad 

 daylight, motionless, in their wide-spread treacherous 

 toils, and having seen their victim fairly entangled, wrap 

 him up in a winding-sheet of their own manufacture ; or 

 whether, simulating the surface of the ground on which 

 they live, they course their prey with untiring assiduity, 

 and, having run it down, suck its blood with tiger-like 

 ferocity. In the Island of Panagatan, I made a capture 

 of another species of Nephila, which I also consider as 

 undescribed. The head is blackish ; thorax silvery, with 

 black spots, and covered with a downy pubescence ; legs 

 chesnut-red, with the last joints black. The body is of a 

 light emerald green, with numerous bright yellow spots. 

 The under-surface is dull black. It forms a large, strong, 



