426 



Annals of the South African Museum. 



They are sucli formidable-looking animals that natives and colonists 

 alike are afraid of them. Thus among the natives of Northern 

 Rhodesia Enyaliopsis durandi is greatly feared. A Native Commis- 

 sioner writes : " The natives and others stand in dread of this insect. 

 They inform me that it exudes a fluid which, coming in contact with 

 any part of the body, forms a sore very much resembling the appear- 

 ance of leprosy, and that to effect a cure takes some two or three 

 months." This belief is, of course, groundless, but the fluid, a 

 greenish liquid, is squirted to a short distance from a large cavity 

 situated on the side of the prosternum. Having had occasion to 





FIG. 3. 



bottle a Hetrodes in a weak solution of ammonia, I found that the 

 liquid had solidified into a hard waxy matter insoluble in alcohol. 



Certain kinds are reported to attack harness and tents of travellers, 

 etc., camping in the karroo. Dr. A. W. Eogers, Director of the 

 Geological Survey of the Union, informs me that any cloth or wearing 

 apparel left at night near the waggon is immediately attacked and 

 partly destroyed. He has supplied me with a photograph showing 

 certain individuals clinging to the tent of his travelling waggon (fig. 3). 



They are more mimerous in certain parts of South Africa than in 

 others ; thus Hetrodes pupus is somewhat rare in the neighbourhood 

 of Cape Town, and seems to occur singly or in pairs ; it is to be found 

 in short herbage or in very low bushes. Its congener H. naniaquensis 



