There is only one known species of _Argyroneta_, widely distributed in the temperate regions of Europe and Asia. The female is about half-an-inch long, of no particular beauty out of the water, its colour being reddish-brown, and its body and legs very hairy. There are, however, a few New Zealand spiders rather closely allied to it and of very similar habits. CHAPTER VIII CRAB-SPIDERS. MIMICRY All spiders can spin, but by no means all use that power to entrap their prey. Many have no settled abode or resting place except perhaps for a short time when they are rearing their young. Among these roving tribes, there are three groups which may engage our attention for a time—the Crab-spiders (Thomisidae), the Wolf-spiders (Lycosidae) and the Jumping spiders (Attidae). Crab-spiders are seldom seen by the ordinary observer, for their habits do not bring them prominently into notice, and many of them are of small size. They are well named, for there is something exceedingly crab-like in their appearance and in their actions. Their body is generally broad and flattened, and their legs, instead of being arranged fore and aft, like those of most spiders, extend more or less laterally, and though they can move pretty actively in any direction their normal method of progression is sideways. Then again, when frightened they cramp their legs up under their bodies in a most crab-like fashion and “sham dead.” [Illustration: Fig. 6. A Crab-spider (_Thomisidae_), × 3.] We saw some of these spiders on the iron railing, but their real haunts are among grass and herbage or upon the trunks of trees. Some are true rovers, hunting their prey by day and camping out wherever they happen to find themselves at night. Their methods are without guile—except that they approach their victims warily; their trust is in rapidity of action and superior strength. But other crab-spiders lead a less strenuous life; their habit is to lurk in moss, lichen, or flowers till an insect draws near enough to be seized without any great expenditure of energy.