CURIOUS SPIDER. 463 



which they feed. As they have an utter aversion to 

 feeding in the light, they leave the outer portion of 

 the stems of the canes they penetrate undevoured, 

 retaining the intermediate parts as divisions and 

 supports, so that, v;^hile the cane looks externally un- 

 blemished, it is internally destroyed. The earth is 

 introduced to repair breaches and add resistance 

 wherever decay has weakened the stock of the plant. 

 Latreille says they are furnished with an acid for 

 softening the wood, the odour of which is exceedingly 

 pungent, and that they moisten their galleries with a 

 gelatinous substance similar to glue. Whatever may 

 be the substance they use, it is certain that the sugar 

 disappears from the cane, and a powerful acidulated 

 liquor only remains. The canes become as red as 

 Braziletto-wood. As these insects are utterly in- 

 capable of subsisting exposed to light, the best 

 remedy against being overrun by their colonies is 

 the effective action of the plough. Tillage by horse 

 or cattle implements, by which the soil is frequently 

 disturbed and broken up, seems the only cure com- 

 mensurate with the magnitude of the evil." 



CURIOUS SPIDER. 



In Sir Hans Sloane's Natural History of Jamaica, 

 vol. ii. pi. 235. fig. 3., there is a representation of a 

 Spider, which has the four pairs of legs set on the 

 corslet by couplets, two pairs pointing forwards and 

 two pairs backwards. In his delineation of the geo- 

 metric web there are a few zigzag lines. These, as 



X 4 



