No. 2.1 PROTECTIVE RESE3IBLANCES IN SPIDERS. 87 



tion themselves motionless in the axils of leaves and other 

 parts of plants to wait for their victims." * 



Mr. Herbert Smith also refers to this habit. He says: 

 "Some of the spiders, we find, are excellent imitators. The 

 cylindrical species lie extended in their webs, with the legs 

 stretched out, to look like a stick; round-bodied kinds draw their 

 legs close and look like a leaf-bud, or a ball of their own silk 

 entangled in the web. * * How shall we notice this one that 

 sits on a leaf, all in a heap ; the pink three-lobed body appears 

 just like a withered flower that might have fallen from the tree 

 above ; to the flies, no doubt, the deception is increased by the 

 strong, sweet odor of the spider, like jasmine."t 



Trimen gives several instances in which Thomisids mimic 

 flowers. He says : "Many species of Tliomisus are well adapted 

 to succeed by being colored in resemblance to the flowers in 

 or on which they await the arrival of their victims. One that 

 inhabits Cape Town is of the exact rose-red of the flowers of the 

 oleander ; and to more effectually conceal it, the palpi, top of 

 cephalothorax, and four lateral stripes on the abdomen, are 

 white, according remarkably with the irregular white markings 

 so frequent on the petals of Neriimi. 



" I was led to notice a yellow spider of the same group, in 

 consequence of seeing that two of a number of butterflies on the 

 flowers of Senecio pubigera did not on mj^ approach fly off with 

 their companions. Each of these unfortunates turned out to be 

 in the clutches of a spider, and when I released them I observed 

 their captors very narrowly, and I found that the latters' close 

 resemblance to the Senecio flowers was not one of color alone, 

 but due also to attitude. This spider, holding on to the flower- 

 stalk by the two hinder pairs of legs, extended the two long 

 front pairs upward and laterally. In this position it was scarcely 

 possible to believe that it was not a flower seen in profile, the 

 rounded abdomen representing the central mass of florets, and 

 the extended legs the ray florets ; while, to complete the illusion, 



* Lepidoptera of the Amazon Valley, Trans. Linn, Soc, Vol. XXXIII, p. 509. 

 t Loc. cit, p. 221. 



