No. 2.] PROTECTIVE RESEMBLANCES IN SPIDERS. 89 



the brilliant male splendens passed his entire time curled up in 

 a corner under a sheet of web, seeming very morose and sulky. 



Cambridge notices a peculiar case of protective resemblance 

 among the Thomisidse. This is T. setiger, whose abdomen, 

 covered with spines and bristles, is whitish mingled with yellow. 

 He says: "The peculiar clothing of long, pale spines and 

 bristles affords an evident protection to this and the preceding 

 species (T. buffoni), making them look exactly like bits of coarse, 

 fleecj' wool, or the rough seeds of some plant or other ; had I 

 not observed them moving, they would probably have escaped 

 notice." * 



The last instance that I shall cite is a predaceous spider 

 which is disguised from both its enemies and its prey by an 

 elaborate combination of form, 

 color, position and character of 

 web. I refer to Ornithoscatoides 

 decipiens (fig. 7), first described 

 by Forbes and afterwards by Cam- 

 bridge, the latter author giving in 

 the same paper descriptions of 

 three other species of the same 

 genus, whose habits have not been 

 noted, but whose protection is evi- ^'f?- '■ — omithoscatoides deci- 



■^ piens (from Caiiibriclge). 



dently of the same order as that 



of decipiens. I give Forbes' interesting account of his capture 

 of decipiens, quoting also the remarks by which Cambridge pre- 

 faces his descrijition, since his explanation of the gradual devel- 

 opment, through Natural Selection, of the spider's deceptive 

 appearance applies as well to all the cases of protective disguise 

 which have been here enumerated. 



The capture is described as follows: 



"On June 25th, 1881, in the forest near the village of Lam- 

 par, on the banks of the Moesi river in Sumatra, while my 'boys' 

 were procuring for me some botanical specimens from a high 

 tree, I was rather dreamily looking on the shrubs before me, 



Spiders of Palestine and Si/rin, Proc Zool. Soc, 1872, Part I, p. 308. 



