SPIDERS 163 



is a much larger species than the other, with jet-black legs and 

 satiny dark grey abdomen as large as a good-sized nut. He 

 apparently hunts his prey, for he has no net, but hides himself 

 in an inverted cup-shaped house of strong web. As I tap the 

 top of this retreat he shams dead and tumbles down into the 

 grass, from which he will presently ascend as soon as the enemy 

 is clear off the ground. 



Close by this hunting spider's home we see the large web of a 

 third species, quite different from the other two. At first sight 

 this appears to be the same insect as the large Nephila, which 

 is so plentiful in Imerina, in orchards and outside houses. A 

 closer inspection, however, shows that it is a different species 

 from that common large spider, for this one has a long filbert- 

 shaped abdomen, striped with brown lines, very different from 

 the golden and silvery markings of the more abundant species. 

 It appears to be strictly a forest spider and seems rather 

 rare. 



In rambling along the edge of one of the pretty rice-valleys 

 north of Ambohimanga, I came across a species I had not met 

 with before. This was of medium size, but was striped in 

 transverse lines of white and black across the abdomen, so as 

 to give it a zebra-like appearance. The under side was almost 

 white ; altogether it is a handsome species, and is probably 

 still undescribed scientifically. It makes a geometrical web, 

 and, like several other Madagascar spiders, puts the web into 

 rapid vibration if it is disturbed. Some species draw up their 

 legs close to the body when lying in wait in the centre of their 

 web, so that they too resemble a small lump of earth or a stone. 

 Is not this also done as a disguise ? It seems to me highly 

 probable. Other species have the habit of stretching out their 

 legs in couples, so as to seem almost as if they had only four or 

 six legs instead of eight, and thus appear to mimic insects. Is 

 this also intended to hide their predaceous character ? 



A traveller through the Tanosy country, south-east coast, 

 speaks of the uncanny aspect of one of the villages hi which he 

 stayed ; and he says that what increased his impression of it, as 

 like a town of wicked enchanters, was that all the houses were 

 festooned and closely linked together overhead by tangled masses 

 of gigantic spiders' webs, amongst which lay in wait monstrous 

 black spiders Some of the coast villages, he says, were almost 



