CURIOUS SPIDER. 
463 
which they feed. As they have an utter aversion to 
feeding in the light, they leave the outer portion of 
the stems of the canes they penetrate undevoured, 
retaining the intermediate parts as divisions and 
supports, so that, while the cane looks externally un- 
blemished, it is internally destroyed. The earth is 
introduced to repair breaches and add resistance 
wherever decay has weakened the stock of the plant. 
Latreille says they are furnished with an acid for 
softening the wood, the odour of which is exceedingly 
pungent, and that they moisten their galleries with a 
gelatinous substance similar to glue. Whatever may 
be the substance they use, it is certain that the sugar 
disappears from the cane, and a powerful acidulated 
liquor only remains. The canes become as red as 
Braziletto-wood. As these insects are utterly in- 
capable of subsisting exposed to light, the best 
remedy against being overrun by their colonies is 
the effective action of the plough. Tillage by horse 
or cattle implements, by which the soil is frequently 
disturbed and broken up, seems the only cure com- 
mensurate with the magnitude of the evil.” 
CURIOUS SPIDER. 
In Sir Hans Sloane’s Natural History of Jamaica, 
vol. ii. pi. 235 . fig. 3., there is a representation of a 
Spider, which has the four pairs of legs set on the 
corslet by couplets, two pairs pointing forwards and 
two pairs backwards. In his delineation of the geo- 
metric web there are a few zigzag lines. These, as 
