3918 Arachnid a. 



* * * Omni etiam anni tempore jejunium diutinum ferre possint ; calidis quoque 

 regionibus etiam per sestatem, non solum cum hyems eas necessario cogat. Araneas, 

 inquit F. Redi, tam masculas quam fominas, vasis vitreis excepi ; longitudinem vita? 

 sine alimento interalia observavi ; nounullis a 15 Julii, quo die capti erant, in finem 

 usque Januarii producentibus," — (p. 12). The most interesting and remarkable ease, 

 however, in illustration of the fact in question that I have been able to meet with, is 

 narrated by Mr. Blackwall in his ' .Researches on Zoology,'* published in 1834. He 

 says, " A female Theridion quadripunotatum, captured in the month of August, 1829, 

 was placed in a phial of transparent glass, and fed with flies till the 15th of October, 

 in the same year, during which interval she accomplished her final moult, and attained 

 maturity. She was then removed to a smaller phial, which was closely corked and 

 locked up in a book-case, her supply of food being at the same time discontinued. In 

 this phial she remained till the 30th of April, 1831, on which day she died, without 

 receiving the slightest nourishment of any description ; yet till the autumn of 1830, no 

 apparent change had taken place, either as regards her external appearance or physi- 

 cal energy. Throughout the entire period of her captivity, she never failed to produce 

 a new snare when the old one was removed, which was frequently the case ; and it is 

 particularly deserving of attention that the alvine evacuations were continued, in 

 minute quantities and at very distant intervals, to the termination of her existence," 

 — (p. 302). This experiment shows that spiders will live as long as the one noticed 

 by Mr. Pickard-Cambridge, without food, but the individual in Mr. Blackwall's case 

 had attained maturity, after which period, as with perfect insects, they undergo no fur- 

 ther increase in size^ (the abdomen of the impregnated female being excepted) ; but 

 it has been found that young individuals, if kept in confinement and only sparingly 

 supplied with nourishment, increase very little in size, moulting only once or twice in- 

 stead of five or six times in a given period, and, if altogether deprived of food, soon 

 die. Mr. Pickard-Cambridge's spider must have obtained nutriment from some source, 

 and this leads me to the most interesting part of the subject, namely, what was its 

 nature ? I have often examined webs made by the house-spider in wine-cellars and 

 other close situations, some of which are perfectly dark, and have little communica- 

 tion with the air, and have seldom if ever found any insects entangled in them, or the 

 remains of insects near them ; and I have therefore been puzzled to know on what 

 food the spiders subsist. Spiders and their webs may also often be seen in the corners 

 of empty and closed drawers, in which no insects will be found. What then is the 

 nature of their food ? It appears that some species require little more than water for 

 their sustenance (all of them live on liquid food, their mouths being only adapted to 

 imbibe the juices of their victims), and if supplied with it will continue plump and 

 well for a long time without any other food. Mr. Blackwall found that a pair of the 



* This work, which contains many interesting observations on Ornithology, Arach- 

 nology, and other branches of Natural History, is, I think, but little known. 



f 1 may here remark, that spiders cannot be strictly said to grow at any period of 

 their existence, their increase in size taking place through the means of periodical 

 inoultings, or casting of the skin : and the number of times that this takes place is not 

 the same in all species. It has been ascertained that the common house-spider (Tege- 

 naria civilis) changes its skin nine times before it arrives at maturity ; Epeira callo- 

 phylla five times, and so on. 



