192 The Naturalist in La Plata, 
even pace. They are very great in attitudes, and 
when one is approached it immediately throws itself 
back, like a pugilist preparing for an encounter, 
and stands up so erect on its four hind feet that the 
under surface of its body is displayed. Humble- 
bees are commonly supposed to carry the palm in 
attitudinizing ; and it is wonderful to see the 
grotesque motions of these irascible insects when 
their nest is approached, elevating their abdomens 
and two or three legs at a time, so that they re- 
semble a troupe of acrobats balancing themselves 
on their heads or hands, and kicking their legs 
about in the air. And to impress the intruder with 
the dangerous significance of this display they hum 
a shrill warning or challenge, and stab at the air 
with their naked stings, from which limpid drops of 
venom are seen to exude. These threatening 
gestures probably have an effect. In the case of 
the hairy spider, I do not think any creature, how- 
ever stupid, could mistake its meaning vfhen it 
stands suddenly up, a figure' horribly grotesque ; 
then, dropping down on all eights, charges violently 
forwards. Their long, shiny black, sickle-shaped 
falces are dangerous weapons. I knew a native 
•woman who had been bitten on the leg, and who, 
after fourteen years, still suffered at intervals acute 
pains in the limb. 
The king of the spiders on the pampas is, how- 
ever, not a Mygale, but a Lycosa of extraordinary 
size, light grey in colour, with a black ring round 
its middle. It is active and swift, and irritable to 
such a degree that one can scarcely help thinking 
that in this species nature has overshot her mark. 
