HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 473 



is not at all used as a snare, but merely as a safe abode 

 for the spider, which hunts its prey at night only ; and, 

 when caught, devours it in security at the bottom of its 

 den, which is generally strewed with the remains of co- 

 leopterous insects 1 . — From some curious observations 

 of M. Dorthes on this species in the second volume of 

 the Lin?iea7i Transactions, it appears that both the male 

 and female spider and as many as thirty young ones oc- 

 casionally inhabit one of these galleries. — Aranea Sauva- 

 gesii of Rossi, which is a distinct species found in Cor- 

 sica, forms a similar habitation b . 



The galleries just described are the work of an Eu- 

 ropean species not uncommon in the south of France ; 

 but similar ones are fabricated by Aranea venatoria, an 

 inhabitant of the West India islands, as well as by many 

 other tropical species. I have seen one of these, which 

 had been dug out of the earth, in the cabinet of Thomas 

 Hall, Esq. F. L. S., that was nearly a foot in length, and 

 above an inch in diameter, forming a cylindrical bag of 

 dark-coloured silk, closed at the bottom, and accurately 

 fitted at the top by a door or lid. 



The habitation of Aranea aquatica, the other spider to 

 which I alluded, is chiefly remarkable for the element in 

 which it is constructed and the materials that compose 

 it. It is built in the midst of water, and formed, in fact, 

 of air ! Spiders are usually terrestrial, but this is aqua- 

 tic, or rather amphibious ; for though she resides in the 

 midst of water, in which she swims with great celerity, 

 sometimes on her belly but more frequently on her back, 



a Sauvages Hist, de V 'Acad, des Sc. de Pans, 1 758, p. 26, 

 b Lair. Hist. Nat. vii. 165. 



