WHILE on the subject of noxious creatures, we remember that one, if not more, of the spiders of Madagascar must be included in the list. This is a small arachnid, about the size and shape of a marble, shining glossy black in colour, except for a small red spot on the fundament. It is greatly dreaded by the natives, who believe its bite to be fatal, and it is probably so if cauterisation and other remedies are not immediately applied. Dr Vinson, a French naturalist, ascertained that this spider, called Mènavòdy by the people, is closely allied to the malignant Latrodectus of Elba and Corsica, whose bite is believed to be fatal, and also to another spider found in Martinique, which is equally dangerous. People bitten by this Madagascar spider scream out with pain at intervals of a minute or two, as if it came on in paroxysms. I remember that one of our servants when bringing one of these spiders to look at took care to hold it at a very respectful distance from himself, at the end of a long stick.
SPIDERS
As we push through the bushes we break through many spiders’ webs, and are struck by the extraordinary shape of some of those whose snares we unwittingly destroy by our passing along. Here is one, small and reddish in colour, but much broader than it is long, each side projecting into a long sharp spike—indeed it is spiky in several directions, and is utterly unlike any other spider we know of. This is, I believe, a species of Cærostris (C. stygiana?), and belongs to a genus of which several species have names denoting their demoniacal shape and colouring—e.g. avernalis, stygiana, etc.
As we stop to observe his geometric web, and his bizarre shape, we see on the tree to which several of his main “guys” are fixed a very different spider’s house and a very different spider from our angular friend just mentioned. This creature is a much larger species than the other, with jet-black legs and satiny dark grey abdomen as large as a good-sized nut. He apparently hunts his prey, for he has no net, but hides himself in an inverted cup-shaped house of strong web. As I tap the top of this retreat he shams dead and tumbles down into the grass, from which he will presently ascend as soon as the enemy is clear off the ground.
Close by this hunting spider’s home we see the large web of a third species, quite different from the other two. At first sight this appears to be the same insect as the large Nephila, which is so plentiful in Imèrina, in orchards and outside houses. A closer inspection, however, shows that it is a different species from that common large spider, for this one has a long filbert-shaped abdomen, striped with brown lines, very different from the golden and silvery markings of the more abundant species. It appears to be strictly a forest spider and seems rather rare.
In rambling along the edge of one of the pretty rice-valleys north of Ambòhimànga, I came across a species I had not met with before. This was of medium size, but was striped in transverse lines of white and black across the abdomen, so as to give it a zebra-like appearance. The under side was almost white; altogether it is a handsome species, and is probably still undescribed scientifically. It makes a geometrical web, and, like several other Madagascar spiders, puts the web into rapid vibration if it is disturbed. Some species draw up their legs close to the body when lying in wait in the centre of their web, so that they too resemble a small lump of earth or a stone. Is not this also done as a disguise? It seems to me highly probable. Other species have the habit of stretching out their legs in couples, so as to seem almost as if they had only four or six legs instead of eight, and thus appear to mimic insects. Is this also intended to hide their predaceous character?
A traveller through the Tanòsy country, south-east coast, speaks of the uncanny aspect of one of the villages in which he stayed; and he says that what increased his impression of it, as like a town of wicked enchanters, was that all the houses were festooned and closely linked together overhead by tangled masses of gigantic spiders’ webs, amongst which lay in wait monstrous black spiders. Some of the coast villages, he says, were almost completely roofed in by these great webs. Spaces of quite thirty feet have been observed spanned by the lines of the nephila mentioned in a [former chapter]; and I have noticed that the angles and outer spaces of its great web are frequently filled up by the minute geometric webs of smaller species. These lesser fry appear to be tolerated, if not encouraged, by their giant neighbour, as they probably catch what would be insignificant to her, and very likely clear her web of what she rejects; and so they all live together in harmony in a small colony.
PROTECTIVE RESEMBLANCE
Looking about in the undergrowth for wild flowers and fruit, and happening to rub against the stem of one of the bushes, a small rough roundish ball falls off on to the ground; this appears exactly like a bit of round wrinkled bark, but on watching for a minute or two, it develops four pairs of legs, and runs nimbly away under cover, revealing itself as a spider, with a marvellous protective resemblance to its surroundings. Unless the creature actually moves, it is impossible to detect it, it is so exactly like a knobby bit of the brown bark.
Protective resemblance in quite a different style appears in a small spider, perfectly white in colour—thorax, legs and abdomen—which scuttles out of the coralla of certain white flowers when these are examined or shaken. This also, unless it moves, is all but invisible; and there can be no doubt that it is thus enabled to catch the many small flies which are attracted by the honey and fragrance of the flowers. A larger and green spider, a handsome species, with a long oval abdomen striped with red, probably also a hunter, thanks to its close resemblance to green leaves and the pale reddish veining seen on many leaves, by which it is thus protected from observation until it can pounce upon its prey. This is one species of the many spiders which are caught by some of the solitary wasps, as described in [Chapter VII.]