192 The Naturalist in La Plata, 



even pace. They are very great in attitudes, and 

 when one is approached it immediately throws itself 

 back, like a pugilist preparing for an encounter, 

 and stands up so erect on its four hind feet that the 

 under surface of its body is displayed. Humble- 

 bees are commonly supposed to carry the palm in 

 attitudinizing ; and it is wonderful to see the 

 grotesque motions of these irascible insects when 

 their nest is approached, elevating their abdomens 

 and two or three legs at a time, so that they re- 

 semble a troupe of acrobats balancing themselves 

 on their heads or hands, and kicking their legs 

 about in the air. And to impress the intruder with 

 the dangerous significance of this display they hum 

 a shrill warning or challenge, and stab at the air 

 with their naked stings, from which limpid drops of 

 venom are seen to exude » These threatening 

 gestures probably have- an efi'ect. In the case of 

 the hairy spider, I do not think- any creature, how- 

 ever stupid, could mistake its meaning when it 

 stands suddenly up, a figure horribly grotesque ; 

 then, dropping down on all eights, charges violently 

 forwards. Their long, shiny black, sickle-shaped 

 falces are dangerous weapons. I knew a native 

 woman who had been bitten on the leg, and who, 

 after fourteen years, still suffered at intervals acute 

 pains in the limb. 



The king of the spiders on the pampas is, how- 

 ever, not a Mygale, but a Lycosa of extraordinary 

 size, light grey in colour, with a black ring round 

 its middle. It is active and swift, and irritable to 

 such a degree that one can scarcely help thinking 

 that in this species nature has overshot her mark. 



