Mr. A. White on Mygale Emilia. W7 



the fact is considered to rest on no foundation, and to be one more 

 of the fables originated by Madame Merian. Now I will relate to 

 you what I saw. In the month of June 1849, in the neighbourhood 

 of Cameta, I was attracted by a curious movement of the large grey- 

 brown Mygale on the trunk of a vast tree. It was close beneath a 

 deep crevice or chink in the tree, across which this species weaves a 

 dense web, open for its exit and entrance at one end. In the present 

 instance, the lower part of the web was broken, and two pretty small 

 finches were entangled in its folds ; the finch was about the size of 

 the common Siskin of Europe, and I judged the two to be male and 

 female : one of them was quite dead, but secured in the broken web ; 

 the other was under the body of the spider, not quite dead, and was 

 covered in parts with the filthy liquor or saliva exuded by the mon- 

 ster. I was on my return from a day's excursion by land, at the time, 

 with my boxes full of valuable and delicate insects, and six miles 

 from my house, and therefore could not have brought the specimens 

 home, even had I vdshed, which I did not, as the species was a very 

 common species, easily to be procured nearer home. 



" If the Mygales did not prey upon Vertebrated animals, I do not 

 see how they could find sufficient subsistence. On the extensive sandy 

 campos of Santarem, so bare in vegetation, there are hundreds of the 

 broad slanting burrows of the large stout species (that fine one, dark 

 brown, with paler brown lines down the legs). The campos, I know, 

 from close research, to be almost destitute of insects, but at the same 

 time they swarm with small lizards, and some curious ground-finches 

 of the Emberiza group (one of which has a song wonderfully resem- 

 bling our Yellow-bunting of England), besides which vast numbers 

 of Caprimulgi (C. psalurus, Azara) and ground-doves lay their eggs 

 on the bare ground. I believe this species of Mygale feeds on these 

 animals and their eggs at night'. Just at close of day, when I have 

 been hurrying home, not liking to be benighted on the pathless 

 waste, I have surprised these monsters, who retreated within the 

 mouths of their burrows on my approach." 



Mygale Emilia. 



M. nigro-fuscay cephalothorace, duobusque articulis singulorum 

 pedum Icete Jlavescenti-rubris. 



Deep blackish-brown ; the basal joint of chelicera with some scat- 

 tered red hairs in front ; the cephalothorax of a rich yellowish-red, 

 the hairs short, close and velvet-like ; the fourth and fifth joints of 

 the legs clothed with yellowish-red hairs, the end of the fifth joint 

 with many brown hairs ; fourth joint of the first pair of legs, with 

 the curiously hooked process near the end, also covered with red 

 hairs, the under side of the fifth and sixth joints and the tarsi 

 clothed with a close, dense, velvet pad. Body brown, with longish, 

 scattered red hairs, which are deeper in hue than on the other 

 parts. 



