o them as to the soft
and thin skinned larvae. Their hard covering and projecting spines
would protect them to such an extent as to give them a fair chance of
surviving.

In one respect the inconspicuous Gasteracanthidae have a decided
advantage over their bright-colored relatives. The birds, indeed,
avoid the conspicuous ones, but their brilliancy serves to attract
another enemy against which spines are no protection--the hunter wasp,
which, as we have seen in the work of Bates, sometimes provisions its
nest wholly with spiders of this family. Mr. Smith gives like
testimony, saying:

"Spines on the abdomen of certain spiders would serve as a protection
against vertebrate enemies, though they do not protect against the
hunter wasps, which frequently provision their nests with these
species." He adds, however, that most of the spiny spiders are common,
and that their colors make them conspicuous; just as butterflies that
are protected by an odor are common and bright-colored....

MIMICRY.--Mimicry, or the imitation of animal forms, while it
is a form of indirect protection, differs in no essential respect from
the imitation of vegetable and inorganic things. As Bates has said,
the object of mimetic tendencies is disguise, and they will work in
any direction that answers this purpose.

In nearly all respects spiders come under the three laws given by
Wallace, as governing the development of mimetic resemblances in
several large classes. These laws are as follows:

1. In an overwhelming majority of cases of mimicry, the animals (or
the groups) which resemble each other inhabit the same country, the
same district, and in most cases are to be found together on the very
same spot.

2. These resemblances are not indiscriminate, but are limited to
certain groups, which, in every case, are abundant in species and
individuals, and can often be ascertained to have some special
protection.

3. The species which resemble or "mimic" these dominant groups, are
comparatively less abundant in individuals, and are often very rare.

The second and third of these laws are confirmed by what we know of
mimetic resemblances among spiders. They mimic ants much oftener than
other creatures, and ants are very abundant, are specially protected,
and are much more numerous than the mimetic spiders. To the first
law, also, they conform to a great extent, since everything tends to
show that in tropical America and in Africa the ant and the