672 THE MAHMIGNATTO. 



common in gardens, and about autumn is especially conspicuous. It has a great liking 

 for the grape-vine, and its webs may often be found covering the clusters of grapes. 

 These webs should be sedulously protected, for, though slight in texture, they are an 

 admirable protection to the grape, intercepting the many insects that love to prey upon 

 that delicate fruit. In some places it is so plentiful that almost every bunch of grapes 

 has its protecting network thrown over it. 



A rather large species inhabiting Corsica, and known by the name of MAKMIGNATTO, 

 or MAKMAGNATTO (Theridion tredecim-guttatum), seems to be rather a formidable creature, 

 its bite causing much pain even to man, and, according to Eossi, inducing most serious 

 symptoms, which are only removable by sharp treatment and copious perspiration. It 

 lives in the open fields, and preys mostly upon insects of the grasshopper kind, stretching 

 long threads across the furrows, which serve to entangle the feet of the active insect, and 

 enable the slower Arachnida to make sure of its victims. When the spider finds a locust 

 thus entangled, it further secures the struggling insect by fresh threads spun over its feet 

 and legs ; and when it has fairly bound all its limbs, it mounts upon its victim and 

 inflicts a fatal wound at the junction of the head with the neck. As soon as the locust 

 has received the bite, it is attacked with a violent convulsion through its whole frame, 

 and dies almost instantaneously. 



This action seems to be universal throughout the Theridia, wherever the spider attacks 

 a large and powerful insect. In Webber's " Song Birds of America," there is an animated 

 account of a battle between a large cockroach and a spider, which seems to belong to this 

 genus. In this case, the cockroach struggled furiously, and was nearly escaping, had not 

 the little spider bethought itself of a new mano3uvre. " We had noticed him frequently 

 attempting to bite through the sheath armour of the cockroach, but he seemed to have 

 failed in piercing it. He now seemed determined to catch the two fore-legs that were 

 free. After twenty trials at least, he noosed one of them, and soon had it under his 

 control. This pair of legs was much more delicate than the others ; he instantly bit 

 through the captured one. 



The poison was not sufficient to affect the large mass of the cockroach a great deal, 

 but the leg seemed to give it much pain, and it bent its head forward to caress the wound 

 with its jaws ; and now the object of the cunning spider was apparent. He ran instantly 

 to the old position he had been routed from on the back of the neck, and, while the cock- 

 roach was employed in soothing the smart of the bite, he succeeded in enveloping the 

 head from the back in such a way as to prevent the cockroach from straightening it out 

 again, and, in a little while more, had him bound in that position, and entirely surrounded 

 by the web. A few more last agonies and the cockroach was dead, for the neck, bent 

 forward in this way, exposed a vital part beneath the sheath ; and we left the spider 

 quietly luxuriating upon the fruit of his weary contest. This battle between -brute force 

 and subtle sagacity lasted one hour and a half." 



The colour of the Marmignatto is deep black, with thirteen round spots on the 

 abdomen, one spot being blood-red. 



Another Theridion has been seen to catch its prey in a somewhat similar manner, 

 netting the insect in its silken toils, spinning thread after thread, and binding it tighter 

 and tighter to the spot, and at last killing it when fairly tied down, and then carrying it 

 off to its domicile. Another species of this genus is given in the ensuing illustration. 



THE genus Linyphia has also many British representatives, and, as in the preceding 

 genus, the generality of these spiders are of very small dimensions. One species 

 (Linyphia triangularis) is very plentiful, and towards the end of summer or the beginning 

 of autumn, its webs may be seen stretching across the branches. Though but a very little 

 spider, not so large as a grain of rice, it makes webs of wide spread, laid horizontally, and 

 carefully sustained by guy ropes attached to different objects around. Sometimes the 

 guy ropes are so strong, and their elasticity so great, that they actually draw the net out 

 of its flat horizontal direction, and make it swell into a very shallow dome. 



The structure of the web is rather loose, and the fibres are necessarily very slender 

 but is yet strong enough to arrest and detain tolerably large insects. The spider generally 



