The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1882-02-01
F1y and sDIder-4he Tables Turned.

Fly anu CpluOE-&AC Ad0iOS AuA AO~"
An old subscriber IN Australia sends
to the GeJstLe1naaSs Magasine the foi-
lowing: Australia is the land OF con-
traliety In regard to animal and vegeta-
bic hfe-such as black swans, the duck
mole, fish which climb trees, cherries
with the stone outside, and veritable
wooden pearsl-but one fact regarding
spiders and flies is equally strange, for
here there a fly which catches spiders.
He is wirY, energetie, hard-looking GUS
toner. body, longish and narrow; color,
literally half mourning, aud about three
quarters of an inch long; he builds a
clay nest for his larvae, generally inside
locks. under veranda heaves, or even in
cracks Of Woodwork, and sometimes in
the folds of curtains or clothes. In one
case, while staying at a friends house
about twenty miles from Sidney, ] left
my waterproof coat hanging untouched
for about four days, and ON taking i
down there was nest neatly built in one
of the folds, of about the size of ones
little finger and three or four inches in
length. n-replscing the coat and leav-
ing it for another few days, and then ex-,
aiming it, the nest was finished; it had
three compartments, with one little white
grub in each, and for its food several
small green spiders, not then absolutely
dead but apparently in a state of coma.
These spiders We're evidently taken out7
of the orange orchard, as there We're
plenty of the same kind alive about the.
trees; but last week, while mp IN the
mountains, watched one of the flies
carrying off a black house-spider quite
"a big as itself; and during the course Of
the day saw him three separate times,
and on each occasion with large spider.
could not find the nest; but the farmer
tells me that he has occasionally done so,
and found as many rs twenty good-sized
spiders of various kinds, all apparently
dead, but not decayed, and generally
five or six larvae of the fly.
''There is also large spider which
actually catches small birds occasionally,
and kills and devours them! He is ike
a wasp il color; body, shape and size of
a small hazel-hut; legs, long and why,
and he also looks like n hard-slzinneda
customer. The web is always double,
one about half as large again as the
other, and made of such strong yell
lowish fiber that, if accidentally walking
into it, Won feel q sensible stoppage of
vonr way for the moment One bird
the wreck of which / myself saw left in \
the web-was rather smaller than the
English wren, and the web was strong
enough to stand all its struggles, although
a little broken here and there.
Gas regards size of some spiders, we
have fiat-hodied, gray-colored one here
which builds no web, but lives under 4
bark of dead trees, behind boards, ETC.,
The body of which is about the size of a
shilling and not much thicker, but-th
legs OF which are quite as long as the
fingers of an ordinary-sized hand, and
the whole spread of the brute is about a
hands breadth. This is for the fullest \
sized ones; bat the common run of them
are five to six inches across, and the
style in which they pounee upon and
double mp the smaller cOckroaches is
what our Yankee cousins would call q
caution 30 /