xi] THERAPHOSID SPIDERS 103 



many of them are supplied with nerve-fibres at the 

 base. The finer hairs are probably not sensory, and 

 they are, in the case of some Avicularid spiders very 

 easily shed, and have a strongly irritant action on the 

 hand that touches them, not unlike the sting of a nettle. 

 It is not at all unusual for one large Avicularid 

 spider, Psalmopoem cambridgii, to be brought over 

 to England in cases of bananas from the W. Indies. 

 Mr James Adams of Dunfermline has kept two 

 specimens alive for a considerable time. The first 

 specimen lived in captivity for two years and nine 

 months, during which it moulted five times but 

 grew very little in si/e. Arriving in September, it 

 was at first fed on flies, and in a few weeks, when 

 these began to fail, it accepted beetles, consuming 



about three a dav. In November, even these insects 



/ 



were difficult to obtain, and recourse was had to 

 cockroaches. At first about three cockroaches a 

 week were eaten but the number decreased until, in 

 the middle of March it ceased feeding altogether, 

 and on April 13 it cast its skin. It moulted 

 again in October, and twice a year for the rest of its 

 life in spring and autumn. During six months it 

 took no food at all, and very little for four months 

 previously. At the last moult but one it lost a limb, 

 which however, reappeared when the spider again 

 changed its skin, though it never attained the proper 

 size. 



