Pu ee) ML, 35 
{pecies ; immediately that the warmth of the fun has hatched them, 
they difperfe, it being no longer neceflary to live in focieties, which 
-jndeed, would deprive fome of their fubfiftence. 
In February we took a neft of minute yellowith eggs, which proved 
to be the infant offspring of the A. Diadema, they fcarcely exceeded the 
fize of a pin’s head when hatched, and were of a bright yellow colour ; 
at firft their food was the common houfe fly, but their increafe in bulk 
was fo rapid that it was neceflary to deftroy many, to preferve'a few ; 
we therefore feleGted four fpecimens, which being fed in feparate 
glaffes, and on different infe€ts, exhibited each a diftin& degree of 
ftrength, and colour. One {pecimen deftroyed thirty of the common 
houfe fly in a day; it then appeared much enlarged, and the colours 
were almoft black, except the {pots of white, which fparkled with 
infinite luftre; but being confined a week without a frefh fupply, its 
colours were confiderably faded ; another week of abftinence reduced 
its colours to a pale uniform brown, the body was much wafted, and 
the creature became perfectly ravenous. It devoured a vait quantity 
of food, and recovered much of its former colours a few hours after. 
Our largeft Spiders are incomparab'e for their fize, or venomous 
qualities, to the productions of America, or of the eaftern countries ; 
in Germany they are far fuperior in fize to our {fpecimens, but in 
Surinam they are infinitely furpafled, Spiders of thofe parts being 
often found with legs as thick as a goofe-quill, and three or four inches 
in length, waich with difficulty fupport a body as large as a pullet’s 
ego. Their {nares are commonly extended from one branch of a tree 
to another, covering the {pace of twenty or thirty feet, and is fufi- 
ciently ftrong to entangle the largeft infects. A. Seba has figured a 
Spider of this defcription, as defcending from an.arm of a tree, into the 
neft of a {mall fpecies of Humming Bird, to fuck the blood of the 
parent, and eggs. 
 & The eyes of the Spider are a very beautiful microfcopic object, 
viewed either as tran{parent or opake; they have generally eight, two on 
the top of the head, that look diretly upwards ; two in the front, a little 
below the foregoing, to difcover what paffes before it; and on each 
fide a couple more, one whereof points fideways forward, the other 
~. fideways backward ; fo that it can fee almoft all around it. “They are 
immoveable, and feem to be formed of a hard, tranfparent, horny fub- 
ftance, ‘Lhe number of eyes is not the fame in all the fpecies of the 
| | pe? Spider. 
