528 SUPPLEMENT 



with their mandibles : they pierce them with the crooks with 

 which they are armed, and suck them; They also engage 

 together in mortal combat, and constantly devour their con- 

 similars. 



The long legs with which nature has provided them not only 

 serve the purpose of enabling them to walk with very great faci- 

 lity, but also to escape from the pursuit of their enemies, and to 

 advertise them of their presence. In a state of rejDose, placed 

 upon a wall, or on the trunk of a tree, the phalangium extends 

 its feet circularly around its body. As they occupy a consi- 

 derable space, if an animal touches at one of its parts, the 

 phalangium places itself immediately on its feet, which form 

 so many arcades, under which the animal passes, if it be 

 small. Should this stratagem not succeed, the arachnid leaps 

 to the ground, and soon escapes. It frequently escapes in the 

 same manner from the hands of the observer, but seldom with- 

 out leaving between the fingers which has seized it one or more 

 of its feet, which will continue to move for hours together, fold- 

 ing and unfolding alternately. This phenomenon takes place 

 because each foot is a hollow tube, which contains in the whole 

 length of its cavity a sort of very fine tendinous thread, on 

 which the air acts, when the foot is detached from the trunk. 

 Geoffroy, having found a phalangium with the third foot much 

 shorter than the others, presumes that this foot had replaced 

 one that was lost, as it happens to crabs and lobsters in a 

 similar predicament. But the shortness of life in the phalan- 

 gium militates against this conjecture. 



In spring only small phalangia are found, which proceed 

 from the eggs deposited the preceding autumn. It is hardly 

 until towards the end of summer that they have acquired their 

 full growth, and then they couple. Sometimes this does not 

 occur without a combat on the part of the males, and some 

 resistance on that of the female. After this, the female 



