464 
AETICULATA. 
[Chap. XIII. 
CHAP. XIII. 
AETICULATA. 
Arachnida — Myriopoda — Crustacea, etc. 
With a few striking exceptions, the true spiders of 
Ceylon resemble in ceconomy and appearance those we 
are accustomed to see at home; — they frequent the 
houses, the gardens, the rocks and the stems of trees, 
and along the sunny paths, where the forest meets the 
open country, the Epeira and her congeners, the true 
net-weaving spiders, extend their lacework, the grace of 
the designs being even less attractive than the beauty 
of the creatures that elaborate them. 
Such of them as live in the woods select with sin- 
gular sagacity the bridle-paths and narrow passages for 
expanding their nets ; perceiving no doubt that the 
larger insects frequent these openings for facility of 
movement through the jungle; and that the smaller 
ones are carried towards them by currents of air. Their 
nets are stretched across the path from four to eight 
feet above the ground, suspended from projecting shoots, 
and attached, if possible, to thorny shrubs ; and they 
sometimes exhibit the most remarkable scenes of carnage 
and destruction. I have taken down a ball as large as a 
man's head consisting of successive layers rolled together, 
in the heart of which was the original den of the family, 
