Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon Part 90

Oxyrhachis, _Germ_.

*indicans, _Wlk_.

Centrotus, _Fabr_.

*reponens, _Wlk_.

*malleus, _Wlk_.

subst.i.tutus, _Wlk_.

*decipiens, _Wlk_.

*relinquens, _Wlk_.

*imitator, _Wlk_.

*repressus, _Wlk_.

*terminalis, _Wlk_.

Fam. CERCOPIDae, _Leach_.

Cercopis, _Fabr_.

inclusa, _Wlk_.

Ptyelus, _Lep. & Serv_.

costalis, _Wlk_.

Fam. TETTIGONIIDae, _Wlk_.

Tettigonia, _Latr_.

paulula, _Wlk_.

Fam. SCARIDae, _Wlk_.

Ledra, _Fabr_.

rugosa, _Wlk_.

conica, _Wlk_.

Gypona, _Germ_.

prasina, _Wlk_.

Fam. Ia.s.sIDae, _Wlk_.

Acocephalus, _Germ_.

porrectus, _Wlk_.

Fam. PSYLLIDae, _Latr_.

Psylla, _Goff_.

*marginalis, _Wlk_.

Fam. COCCIDae, _Leach_.

Lecanium, _Illig_.

Coffeae, _Wlk_.

CHAP. XIII.

ARTICULATA.

_Arachinida--Myriopoda--Crustacea, etc._

With a few striking exceptions, the true _spiders_ of Ceylon resemble in oeconomy and appearance those we are accustomed to see at home;--they frequent the houses, the gardens, the rocks and the stems of trees, and along the sunny paths, where the forest meets the open country, the _Epeira_ and her congeners, the true net-weaving spiders, extend their lacework, the grace of the designs being even less attractive than the beauty of the creatures that elaborate them.

Such of them as live in the woods select with singular sagacity the bridle-paths and narrow pa.s.sages for expanding their nets; perceiving no doubt that the larger insects frequent these openings for facility of movement through the jungle; and that the smaller ones are carried towards them by currents of air. Their nets are stretched across the path from four to eight feet above the ground, suspended from projecting shoots, and attached, if possible, to th.o.r.n.y shrubs; and they sometimes exhibit the most remarkable scenes of carnage and destruction. I have taken down a ball as large as a man's head consisting of successive layers rolled together, in the heart of which was the original den of the family, whilst the envelope was formed, sheet after sheet, by coils of the old web filled with the wings and limbs of insects of all descriptions, from large moths and b.u.t.terflies to mosquitoes and minute coleoptera. Each layer appeared to have been originally hung across the pa.s.sage to intercept the expected prey; and, when it had become surcharged with carcases, to have been loosened, tossed over by the wind or its own weight, and wrapped round the nucleus in the centre, the spider replacing it by a fresh sheet, to be in turn detached and added to the ma.s.s within.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Spider]

Separated by marked peculiarities both of structure and instinct, from the spiders which live in the open air, and busy themselves in providing food during the day, the _Mygale fasciata_ is not only sluggish in its habits, but disgusting in its form and dimensions. Its colour is a gloomy brown, interrupted by irregular blotches and faint bands (whence its trivial name); it is sparingly sprinkled with hairs, and its limbs, when expanded, stretch over an area of six to eight inches in diameter.

It is familiar to Europeans in Ceylon, who have given it the name, and ascribed to it the fabulous propensities, of the Tarentula.[1]

[Footnote 1: Species of the true _Tarentula_ are not uncommon in Ceylon; they are all of very small size, and perfectly harmless.]

The Mygale is found abundantly in the northern and eastern parts of the island, and occasionally in dark unfrequented apartments in the western province; but its inclinations are solitary, and it shuns the busy traffic of towns.

The largest specimens I have seen were at Gampola in the vicinity of Kandy, and one taken in the store-room of the rest-house there, nearly covered with its legs an ordinary-sized breakfast plate.[1]

[Footnote 1: See Plate opposite.]

This hideous creature does not weave a broad web or spin a net like other spiders, but nevertheless it forms a comfortable mansion in the wall of a neglected building, the hollow of a tree, or under the eave of an overhanging stone. This it lines throughout with a tapestry of silk of a tubular form; and of a texture so exquisitely fine and closely woven, that no moisture can penetrate it. The extremity of the tube is carried out to the entrance, where it expands into a little platform, stayed by braces to the nearest objects that afford a firm hold. In particular situations, where the entrance is exposed to the wind, the mygale, on the approach of the monsoon, extends the strong tissue above it so as to serve as an awning to prevent the access of rain.

The construction of this silken dwelling is exclusively designed for the domestic luxury of the spider; it serves no purpose in trapping or securing prey, and no external disturbance of the web tempts the creature to sally out to surprise an intruder, as the epeira and its congeners would.

By day it remains concealed in its den, whence it issues at night to feed on larvae and worms, devouring c.o.c.kroaches and their pupae, and attacking the millepeds, gryllotalpae, and other fleshy insects.

Mr. EDGAR L. LAYARD has described[1] an encounter between a Mygale and a c.o.c.kroach, which he witnessed in the madua of a temple at Alittane, between Anaraj.a.poora and Dambool. When about a yard apart, each discerned the other and stood still, the spider with his legs slightly bent and his body raised, the c.o.c.kroach confronting him and directing his antennae with a restless undulation towards his enemy. The spider, by stealthy movements, approached to within a few inches and paused, both parties eyeing each other intently; then suddenly a rush, a scuffle, and both fell to the ground, when the blatta's wings closed, the spider seized it under the throat with his claws, and dragged it into a corner, when the action of his jaws was distinctly audible. Next morning Mr.

Layard found that the soft parts of the body had been eaten, nothing but the head, thorax, and clytra remaining.

[Footnote 1: _Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist._ May, 1853.]

But, in addition to minor and ign.o.ble prey, the Mygale rests under the imputation of seizing small birds and feasting on their blood. The author who first gave popular currency to this story was Madame MERIAN, a zoological artist of the last century, many of whose drawings are still preserved in the Museums of St. Petersburg, Holland, and England.

In a work on the Insects of Surinam, published in 1705[1], she figured the _Mygale aricularia_, in the act of devouring a humming-bird. The accuracy of her statement has since been impugned[2] by a correspondent of the Zoological Society of London, on the ground that the mygale makes no net, but lives in recesses, to which no humming-bird would resort; and hence, the writer somewhat illogically declares, that he "disbelieves the existence of any bird-catching spider."

[Footnote 1: _Dissertatio de Generatione et Metamorphosibus Insectorum Surinamensium_, Amst. 1701. Fol.]

[Footnote 2: By Mr. MACLEAY in a paper communicated to the Zoological Society of London, _Proc._ 1834, p. 12.]

Some years later, however, the same writer felt it inc.u.mbent on him to qualify this hasty conclusion[1], in consequence of having seen at Sydney an enormous spider, the _Epeira diadema_, in the act of sucking the juices of a bird (the _Zosterops dorsalis_ of Vigors and Horsfield), which, it had caught in the meshes of its geometrical net. This circ.u.mstance, however, did not in his opinion affect the case of the _Mygale_; and even as regards the _Epeira_, Mr. MacLeay, who witnessed the occurrence, was inclined to believe the instance to be accidental and exceptional; "an exception indeed so rare, that no other person had ever witnessed the fact."

[Footnote 1: See _Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist._ for 1842, vol. viii. p.