MARIA SIBILIA MERIAN. 
39 
but the manner in which they are represented to be 
employed seems entirely fanciful, and probably sug- 
gested by the idle stories of the natives. The prin- 
cipal figures are those of the gigantic bird-spider 
(Mygale aeicularia, Walck.), the hunting-spider 
C Tkamisus venatoritis, Latr.), and parasol ant ( For- 
mica c^halotes, Fabr.) Of the former, one of the 
figures is represented as destro)Tng a humming-bird, 
which it has just dragged from its nest ; and the other 
as issuing from the huge cocoon of a kind of moth, 
which it is asserted, ivithout probability, to be in 
the habit of adopting for its dwelling. As the stoiy 
of this spider devouring small birds seems to have 
originated with Madam Merian, we shall translate 
what she says on the subject ; and this account, along 
with that of Formica cephaiotes appended to it, may 
be taken as an example of the descriptive portion 
of her work. “ I found,” she says, “ many large 
dark coloured spiders on the guava tree C Psidium J, 
which take up their abode in the large cocoon of a 
caterpillar ; for they do not spin webs, as some 
travellers have tried to make us believe. Their 
bodies are entirely covered with hair, and they are 
armed with long pointed teeth, with which they 
bite severely, and inflict dangerous wounds by in- 
jectmg some kind of liquid. Their common food 
is ants, which they capture nith ease as they run 
upon the trees ; for, like all other spiders, they are 
furnished ■with eight eyes, two placed above and 
two below, two on the right side, and a like number 
