218 GOSSAMER 



Does not such deft surgery compare favourably with a 

 human butcher's pole-axe ? 



No, it is not in satisfying its legitimate hunger that 

 Lycosa and many other species of spider sicken us. It 

 is the sordid treachery of the nuptial chamber that 

 one cannot contemplate without disgust. I have 

 described elsewhere the daily butchery that I have 

 witnessed in the web of one species.^ It seems that 

 what would be loathed as unnatural in the higher 

 animals is part of the nature of most, if not all, kinds 

 of spider. 



Spiders are divided roughly into two groups, Web- 

 spinners and Hunters, corresponding to the Retiarii or 

 netsmen, and the Samnites or shield-and- swordsmen 

 of the Roman gladiatorial arena. Web-spinning spiders, 

 like the Retiarii, trust to entangling their victim in a 

 net before delivering the mortal thrust. The hunter 

 spider spins no web, but trusts, like the Samnite, to 

 agility and a keen weapon. But in both these groups 

 the female, always larger, stronger, and more nimble 

 than the male, exhibits an abominable appetite. I 

 have described elsewhere the domestic economy of one 

 of the EpeiridcB ^ which I kept under observation for 

 some days. It was not a whit worse than that of the 

 race in general. The female spider is polyandrous, 

 that is, there is no limit to the number of males which 

 she admits — nay, entices — to her embrace. Upon each 

 one, after he has satisfied his passion, this ghoulish 

 creature turns her poisoned fangs. A single snap, and 

 the hapless bridegroom is — I was about to say 'no 

 ' Memories of the Months, third series, p. 240, 



