The Irregularity of a Spider’s Feeding. 
By JE. Burman: 
One afternoon in 1908 my attention was drawn to an irrides- 
cent green hunting spider upon the wall of my house in Calcutta. 
There were many mosquitoes about at the time; and I asked myself 
if this spider fed upon them, and accordingly caught it for the 
purpose of observation. The source of the mosquitoes was quickly 
found in the servants’ quarters, the brood of larvae appropriated, 
and by means of a glass funnel over the vessel containing the larvae 
and pupae, the flies as they emerged were forced to enter a glass 
fronted box which became a cage for the spider. A small vessel of 
water was placed in the cage so that the air was constantly moist. 
-The temperature went uncontrolled, and as it was the hot weather 
ran to maxima above 100° F. The cage was not moved from the 
room where the spider had been caught. The spider was now sup- 
pled with fresh mosquitoes daily and the “kills” counted over 63 
days, 2.e. from May 25th. to July 26th. On July 26th. as I was pro- 
ceeding on tour, the observations were discontinued, and the spider, 
a female, weighed: she weighed .0%5 grammes. The spider put into 
spirit, was posted to a specialist in spiders, for determination, but 
the parcel miscarried, and the name of the species is not known. 
The spider in the 63 days over which the observations were 
extended, killed and devoured 355 mosquitoes ; but most irregularly. 
When caught she was hunting; on the nex: day she laid eggs, and 
then fasted on and off over a week: for two days after this sne fed 
ravenously, killing 17 on the first of the two and 10 on the second ; 
then followed a fast day, a day when 2 were killed, and another fast 
day; after this on five days she fed considerably, killing in ali 58 
mosquitoes; then came a three days complete fast; three days of 
moderate feeding, a day’s fast, and so on. Once in July she fast- 
ed completely for seven days. Her maximum was 17; and this she 
reached on three occasions. 
Newly a copy of the Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy 
of Sciences, Arts and Letters, vol. XIX. has come into my hands, 
wherein at p. 524 is an account by Miss Catherine Elizabeth Nebel 
of the feeding of seven individuals of the spider, Aramea sericata, 
which she watched for periods up to fifteen weeks, feedmg them 
upon the fruit fly—Drosophila ampelophila. Her spiders fasted 
and fed as irregularly as mine: but she noted that if the temperature 
of her laboratory were raised to 100° F. the spiders responded by 
an increased feeding upon the second day. 
It should be noted that these were voluntary fasts, not involun- 
tary which spiders are well known to endure for very long periods. 
My spider was never seen to take any notice of a mosquito 
which did not move. What an advantage rest by day would seem 
to confer on the mosquito! 
Jour. Straits Branch R. A. Soc., No. 86 1922. 
