Now underlying this question there is surely a very unwarranted assumption that all the myriad creatures which exist have, as a reason for their existence, some reference to the activities and desires of mankind. As far as it has any meaning at all it amounts to this: What benefit does man derive from spiders? But it seems to take for granted that some benefits must accrue to man from these creatures, or they would not have the audacity to persist in living. Well, if the question in this amended form is in urgent need of an answer, the reply must be: very little if any. Certainly spiders prey as a rule on insects and no doubt kill many which might injure us, and in the constant battles between man and insect pests, instances have been recorded where particular species of spider have fought on the side of man with appreciable effect. But then they are as likely to devour our insect friends as our insect enemies, impartially slaying the just together with the unjust, so that little stress can be laid on their utility on this score. Indeed there is quite as good a case to be made out of man benefiting spiders as of spiders benefiting man, for his architectural proclivities have provided some species with secure homes from which most of their enemies—except man himself—are excluded, and where they are sheltered from the storms which are so fatal to their relatives outside, protected from extremes of temperature, and rendered so independent of times and seasons that the number of broods they produce in the year has increased. Whether a creature is useful or injurious is entirely a matter of the point of view. There are several animals with regard to which the opinions of the farmer and the gamekeeper are diametrically opposed! But if anything emerges from the study in which we have been engaged, it is surely this fact: that wherever there is a niche in nature capable of sustaining life, to that niche some animal will sooner or later adapt itself without any reference to man’s desires or interests. We have seen spiders, all built on the same ground-plan, so to speak, and with the same essential organs, so modified in the details of structure and inherited instincts as to be able to thrive under the most diverse conditions. Think, for instance, of the water-spider and the desert Tarantula, or consider the difference in mode of life between the sedentary garden-spider and the hunting Attid. Incessant competition in the struggle for life no doubt urged on primeval spiders to strike out new modes of existence. Under slightly novel conditions the best adapted or most adaptable survived and were pioneers in the occupation of a new territory till the widely different capacities and habits which we now wonder at were slowly evolved.