these trap-door spiders, and the difficulties and dangers to which they are exposed, if we wish to appreciate fully the true meaning and intention of the structure of their nests, and to find the clue to the difficult question why one type should be more frequently adopted than another. Above all, we must discover what are their enemies, and how and when they are most exposed to them. M. de Walckenaer gives an entertaining account[1] of the enemies to which spiders generally are exposed, and of this the following list is an abstract.
Many kinds of monkeys, squirrels, and several sorts of birds, as well as lizards, tortoises, frogs, and toads prey upon spiders. A species of black sheep, found in the steppes of Asiatic Russia, unearths the tarantulas (Lycosa), and eats them. ("Une espèce de brebis noire, dans les steppes de la Russie asiatique, déterre les tarentules et les mange"). In the East India Archipelago there is an entire genus of birds of the passerine order, which have been named "Arachnoptères" because the different species of which it is composed live exclusively on spiders. Besides these, the centipede (Scolopendra), and the following Hymenopterous insects, Philanthes, Sphex, Pompilus, Pimpla Ovivora, and P. Arachnitor [which last lay their eggs in the eggs of spiders], carry on perpetual hostilities against them.
I have seen it stated that ants are among the worst enemies of spiders, driving their galleries through the silk tubes of the latter and devouring their eggs. Of this I have never seen any trace, and, on the contrary,
- ↑ Histoire des Insectes Aptères (Suites à Buffon), vol. i. p. 172-7.
