British Entomological Society. 3155 



seemed composed of many longitudinal ribs and folds extended from this to the mar- 

 gin of the protecting cover. Now the spider, formed by nature for the express pur- 

 pose — imitated this peculiar conformation of the seed, by coiling up its small black 

 head and body on its plump, disproportionately large, red abdomen, and laying its stout 

 black limbs close together to form the ridge. The umbrella-like leaflet, which par- 

 tially enveloped the seed, performed the same kind office for the spider, and completed 

 the disguise, which, if the reader should think clumsy and ill-fitting, I beg him to 

 attribute to the uncouthness of my description, and not to any want of talent in this 

 incomparable actor. The flies were evidently aware of the presence of their enemies, 

 and also seemed to know, probably by their wanting the fragrant and attractive gum, 

 which they were — for while the legitimate seed had each one or more tenants, the pie- 

 tenders, who held a proportion to the others of fully one to four, had only chance and 

 unfrcquent callers. 



" A difficulty here naturally arises : — what led the flies, if they knew the real from 

 the feigned seeds, to wittingly seek their destruction ? Its attempted solution involves 

 probably the most singular fact connected with the subject. A happy tippler, after 

 swilling the nectar for some time, would carelessly buzz away to the first bright object 

 near him, unable to perceive, or entirely regardless of danger. Can it be that the 

 honied liquid has proved too strong for his weak head, and he fails to see clearly after 

 deep potations? — or does his sense of smell, which alune enables him to discriminate 

 friend from foe, become cloyed and deadened by his odorous draughts, and he falls a 

 victim whilst trusting to his eyes, which merely trace the resemblance ? Little does 

 it matter what are the precise circumstances ; it is sufficient that the spider is provided 

 with food, while it affords an instance of that nice adaptation of the means to the end, 

 and of that wondrous instinct and sagacity, which is often so profusely displayed by 

 nature in these and other insect tribes, and not more strikingly in the more remote, as 

 in those that are most familiar to us. Yet how few are aware that an insect which in- 

 habits our houses, taking up its quarters in our bed-chambers — nay, even in our beds, 

 and preying on a species of vermin — with which we are most of us acquainted, as in 

 some localities few houses are free from them — is, in its own way, as talented an actor 

 as the subject of our sketch. I allude to the larva of the bug-bear (Reduvius perso- 

 natus), which deceives its prey by assuming the appearance of those aggregations of 

 flix and dust which strew the floors beneath our beds, succeeding in this character by 

 arraying itself in a mantle of down and tiny shreds. In the seed-covers now occupied 

 by the spider, I often found a pale yellow silken purse — well stored with young: of 

 this it was almost impossible to dispossess the mother ; for, with true maternal affec- 

 tion, sooner than part with it, she would suffer herself to be torn limb from limb. It 

 may be asked, how, in the first place, the spiders managed to detach the seeds, whose 

 position they occupied ? The most natural reply is, that they merely take possession 

 after the birds have devoured them ; for it is probable that these are their proper food, 

 and not the insects, as I had at first conjectured. May be the birds come to feed on 

 the spiders, and tear the seeds from their delicate foot -stalks, in the endeavour to find 

 their prey, in whose appearance they may be as often deceived as the flies themselves; 

 it must be confessed, however, that this latter conjecture is neither so simple nor so 

 plausible as the former. 



" The complicated relations of plant, bird, and insect, form one of those beautiful 

 harmonies between the different kingdoms of Nature, which the amiable St. Pierre so 

 delighted to depict. The plant affords to the bird its daily bread, with protection and 



