THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 45 



further supply of fresh food, but these creatures, I know, are 

 able to put up with long fasts. 



This reminds me that the lady spiders are apt to devour their 

 mates — the gentlemen spiders — according to the old Latin poet 

 (Horace, I believe), who spoke of these ladies as " Soeva, etiam 

 in amore," which means cruel in their affections. A legal friend 

 has suggested that all this severity may be due to jealousy — that, 

 in fact, it may be the method of spider divorce ; if so, it is 

 certainly a somewhat high-handed proceeding 



When the young katipos make their appearance they are of a 

 grey colour, with black spots on the body and legs. They 

 moult off" three or more times, I believe, and with each moult the 

 vermilion stripe on the back is produced. At first there is a 

 small spot, next a series of red spots down the back, and in the 

 final stage these spots unite into a stripe, which is curiously 

 notched along each edge, thus \\.^ When I first noticed these 

 katipos I observed that some of them — I suppose the older ones. 

 — had a red stripe crossed over the back as well as the vertical 

 one, so it would seem that these spiders not only have their 

 laws of divorce, but also put on the blazonings of a Red Cross 

 Knight. But as it is long since I have met with one of these 

 cross-banri spiders, possibly this is a sign of a departed chivalry, 

 the days of the Red Cross Knights having passtd away. 



I once killed a mouse by the bite of one of these spiders. 

 The mouse died in twenty-four hours, and presented extensive 

 congestion, which affected the limbs and the head of the animal, 

 and gave evidence, also, of an extensive paralysis of the principal 

 nerves regulating rhe functions of the body. Being somewhat of 

 a greenhorn in those days as regards the examiination of the blood 

 under the microscope, I did not determine the existence of any 

 change in it as the result of the poison. When I related the result 

 of the above experiment to the late Mr. Sharpe Maclea, of Sydney, 

 a well-known naturalist, he expressed great surprise at the informa- 

 tion. At the same time, he informed me that the katipo was 

 closely related to a reputed poisonous spider of Jamaica, called 

 '' mal a pert." This brings me to my experience in Victoria, 

 where there is a similar— if not an identical — spider, whose bite 

 is quite as poisonous as its relation of New Zealand. But it 

 appears to me to follow a somewhat different habit, inasmuch as it is 

 found in out-of the-way places, such as old out-houses and sheds, 

 and under old verandahs. I have had one patient who suffered 

 from the bite of this creature, and the sufferer — a strong man- 

 was laid up in bed for a couple of days, suffering severe pain. I 

 met another man who told me that he had been severely bitten 

 by a spider, and he brought me a specimen of one which 

 resembled that which had bitten him — it was a red-backed, 

 velvet-black spider. I have made experiments with the Victorian 



