INTRODUCTION. XXXI. 



Another spider, abundant in many marshy places in the South 

 of England — Tibellus oblongus, Walck. — has an elongated-oval 

 hody with longish legs, and is of a uniform dull yellowish hue ; 

 it is an exceedingly active spider, and when running in autumn 

 among the dull yellowish, decaying, coarse grass and rushes, looks 

 much larger than it really is ; all of a sudden you lose sight of 

 it, and unless you are aware of its habit you are puzzled as to 

 what can of become of it, and are going to give it up as lost ; 

 but there it is close to you, stretched out at full length along the 

 exactly similarly coloured stem of grass or rush, with its first 

 and second pairs of legs put forward in a straight line, and its 

 third and fourth pairs stretched in the same way backwards, so 

 as to be scarcely distinguishable from the stem itself. In spring 

 and summer Tetragnatha externa, Linn., a greenish spider, con- 

 ceals itself in the same way along the green stems of grass 

 and rushes. Many other instances might be given, but these 

 are sufficient here to call attention to this most interesting part 

 of the study of spiders. 



Enemies of Spiders. 



Spiders, formed for the destruction of others, have yet them- 

 selves many enemies. They prey upon each other, as well as 

 upon all the insect tribes, and on other Arachnids. Numbers are 

 also destroyed in the young state by the Phalangides or " Harvest- 

 men." The large black and rod ant of our woods — Formica rufa 

 — also destroys them so completely, that in those localities thickly 

 inhabited by the ant, I have generally found it almost useless 

 to search for spiders. "Wasps and hornets also devour them ; as 

 as well as do birds, lizards, and other reptiles, and probably 

 many of the smaller mammalia. Some others of the Hymenop- 

 terous insects prey, parasitically, upon spiders. For instance, 

 Pompilm sepicola, E. Smith — a largo, black and red, wasp-like 

 insect — seizes some of our largest spiders — such as Trochosa ruri- 

 cola, De Geer, and T. terricola, Thor. — paralyzes them with its sting, 

 leaving them, however, still living, drags them by main force to its 

 hole in the sand, and deposits its eggs in the spider's body ; the 



