Marvels of the Universe 



117 



belonging to the same group as the 

 common garden-spider ha\'e short legs, 

 convex bodies and spotted coloration, so 

 as to be exactly like the little beetles 

 known as ladj'birds, which are so nauseous 

 on account of their acrid juices that very 

 few animals will eat them. But the most 

 perfect instances of mimicry in spiders are 

 found amongst the species which imitate 

 ants. 



These belong to se\'eral distinct 

 families, but the modifications which bring 

 about the resemblance have followed al- 

 most the same lines in every case. Ants 

 have a large head carr\ing a pair of 

 feelers, and joined by a narrow neck to 

 the long body, the fore-part of which 

 bears six legs and is attached to the o-\-al 

 hinder-part by a slender, flexible waist 

 Now spiders have no feelers and no head 

 distinct from the body. They possess, 

 however, eight legs and to imitate feelers 

 they hft the legs of the first pair and, 

 stretching them forwards, wa\'e them in 

 the air like feelers, thus leaving six legs 

 for walking, as in the ant. The semblance 

 of the ant's neck is produced by a deep 

 groove on each side near the fore-part of 

 the body, and this groove is fiUed with a 

 patch of white hairs, which has the same 

 optical effect as a piece of the body being 

 cut away. 



Thus is the detached head of the 

 ant represented. Other likenesses to 

 the ant are produced in analogous ways ; 

 and even the restless zigzag gait of the 

 insect is unconsciously copied by the 

 spiders to complete the deception. The 

 mimicry is indeed often so close that the 

 one animal can scarcely be distinguished 

 from the other. 



The reason for this particular kind 

 of mimicry becomes perfectly clear 

 when it is explained that out of 

 the very large numbers of species of 

 mason wasps that prey upon spiders, not 

 one provisions its nest with ants. Some 

 of these wasps, in fact, are known to have 

 the greatest fear of ants. 



AnotKer South-American Spider of ' 

 shown on the left, mimics the 



.'hich only the ma!f 

 Ant on the right. 



y.y J. TekJenlnirg. 

 SPIDER MIMICRY. 



The three Spiders of remarkable form and markinss mimic Lady- 

 birds, which have nauseous flavours and are therefore avoided by 

 birds. They are orb-spinners, like our garden-spider, but come from 

 Africa. The Ladybirds resembling them are shown to the right. 



