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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
colored Epeïra livida lives in similar luxury under the roofs of the Malagasy houses of the province of Imerina.
Fig. 11.—Nephila Chrysogaster[1] Male and Female (one half natural size).
Leaving the grand epeïras, we may find, among vegetation and on walls, spiders whose weak proportions suggest their classifica-
- ↑ This spider, whose name translated is the golden-bellied Nephila, has been described in "La Nature," by M. Maurice Maindron, from his observations of it in Java, the Moluccas, and New Guinea. Its nests are quite numerous in Java, and occupied several metres in the forests. They are constructed at an elevation above the ground corresponding with the height of a man's head, and are frequently annoying to persons passing through the wood. M. Maindron found the threads strong enough to pull off his salacko, or cork helmet, whenever it became entangled in them, and hold it suspended in their meshes. It is not unusual for the casual intruder into the nest to carry off the spider on his face, where the animal makes itself perfectly at home, and will promenade at its leisure over your face, shoulders, and arms, and will walk quietly the length of your body, in no seeming hurry to get away.—Editor.
