Insects. 3493 



fly fell into the snare, and struggled hard to get loose. The spider gave it leave to 

 entangle itself as much as possible, but it seemed to be too strong for the cobweb. I 

 must own I was greatly surprised when I saw the spider immediately sally out, and 

 in less than a minute weave a new net round its captive, by which the motion of its 

 wings was stopped ; and, when it was fairly hampered in this manner, it was seized 

 and dragged into the hole. In this manner it lived, in a precarious state; and Nature 

 seemed to have fitted it for such a life, for upon a single fly it subsisted for more than 

 a week. I once put a wasp into the net ; but when the spider came out in order to 

 seize it as usual, upon perceiving what kind of an enemy it had to deal with, it in- 

 stantly broke all the bands that held it fast, and contributed all that lay in its power 

 to disengage so formidable an antagonist. When the wasp was set at liberty, I 

 expected the spider would have set about repairing the breaches that were made in its 

 net ; but these, it seems were irreparable : wherefore the cobweb was now entirely for- 

 saken, and a new one begun, which was completed in the usual time. I had now a 

 mind to try how many cobwebs a single spider could furnish ; whereupon I destroyed 

 this, and the insect set about another. When I destroyed the other also, its whole 

 stock seemed entirely exhausted, and it could spin no more. The arts it made use of 

 to support itself, now deprived of its great means of subsistence, were indeed surpris- 

 ing. I have seen it roll up its legs like a ball, and lie motionless for hours together, 

 but cautiously watching all the time : when a fly happened to approach sufficiently 

 near, it would dart out all at once, and often seize its prey. Of this life, however, it 

 soon began to grow weary, and resolved to invade the possession of some other spider, 

 since it could not make a web of its own. It formed an attack upon a neighbouring- 

 fortification with great vigour, and at first was as vigorously repulsed. Not daunted, 

 however, with one defeat, in this manner it continued to lay siege to another's web 

 for three days, and, at length, having killed the defendant, actually took possession. 

 When smaller flies happen to fall into the snare, the spider does not sally out at once, 

 but very patiently waits till it is sure of them ; for, upon his immediately approaching, 

 the terror of his appearance might give the captive strength sufficient to get loose ; 

 the manner, then, is to wait patiently, till, by ineffectual and impotent struggles, the 

 captive has wasted all its strength, and then he becomes a certain and easy conquest. 

 The insect I am now describing lived three years ; every year it changed its skin and 

 got a new set of legs. I have sometimes plucked off a leg, which grew again in two 

 or three days. At first it dreaded my approach to its web, but at last it became so fa- 

 miliar as to take a fly out of my hand ; and upon my touching any part of the web, 

 would immediately leave its hole, prepared either for a defence or an attack.'' 



Insects impaled on Thorns. — Having seen a request from Mr. Douglas, for facts 

 respecting insects impaled on thorns, I beg to communicate a curious instance which 

 fell under my notice last August, at Rhyl, on the north coast of Wales, in the hope 

 that it may prove new to some of your readers. While there, I took several speci- 

 mens of Anomala Julii, impaled on the thorny blades of the bent grass, which covers 

 the sand hills along the shore, and in each of these cases the thorn was firmly stuck 

 into the under side of the body of the beetle, the head not being towards the thorn ; so 

 that the insects at first sight looked as if they were clinging to the grass, especially as 

 they were quite perfect, though apparently dead some time In this instance at least 



