272 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



was entirely fulfilled the expectation witli wliicli 1 entered upon the prep- 

 aration of these comparative tables.' 



It may not be without interest, and may, perhaps, have some bearing 

 upon the above theory of distribution, to remark that the genus (or a 

 closely allied genus) to which Heterapoda venatoria belongs is probablj^ 

 one of the oldest known forms of the spider fauna. Thorell ^ places the 

 now existing genus Heterapoda (Ocypete, Koch ; Oxypete, Menge) among 

 those which are represented in the amber spiders. Amber probably be- 

 longs to the tertiary (oligocene) period, and in it numerous spiders are 

 found, generally well preserved. How far any supposed contiguity or 

 closer approacli of continents now separated might have facilitated or oc- 

 casioned the world round distribution of our Huntsman spider, is a })oint 

 upon which geologists may more properly express an opinion. 



The question, what variation of species, if any, occurs in the course 



of this distribution, is of great interest. The specimens examined by me 



show no variations which may not come within the range of 



Variation those natural differences which obtain in many species. Most of 



JP. . the specimens had been so long in alcohol as to obliterate any 

 bution differences in color and markings which might have existed. 

 The normal color is a uniform tawny yellow, varied upon the 

 cephalothorax by a circular patch of blackish or blackish brown color 

 covering nearly two-thirds of the space ; and, further, by a white or whit- 

 ish marginal band quite or nearly girdling the same. In some of the 

 specimens this circular patch seems to have been more or less of a brown- 

 ish color. Gerstaecker ^ speaks of this species as distributed over a large 

 part of Africa, Asia, and South America. Specimens were examined by 

 him from Dafeta, Mombas, and Zanzibar. In these there was some varia- 

 tion in the coloration of the maxillary palpi : on the one hand, from a 

 light rust color to brownish red and pitch brown ; on the other hand, to 

 a more or less sharp division or limitation of the light yellow color of 

 the anterior and posterior borders of the cephalothorax. There was also 

 a browning of the region about the eyes. But the araneologist will not 

 regard such differences as having any special value as specific characters. 



' When these studies were originally announced in the Philadelphia Academy, I had 

 no specimens from the South Pacific Islamls witliin the same general l>elt ; nor from the 

 chain of small islands between the Sandwich Islands and Asia, viz., Philadclpliia, Drake, and 

 Massachusetts Islands, Anson and Magellan Arcliipelagoes ; nor the Cape Verde and St. 

 Helena Islands, oflf the west coast of Africa. Nevertheless, I expressed the belief that these 

 had all been stations in the line fif migration, the latter across the Atlantic Ocean as the 

 Antilles have been ; the former across the Pacific, as the Sandwich Island^, Loo-Choo Island, 

 and .lapan have been, and as Mauritius and Madagascar Islands have l)een across the In- 

 dian (!)cean. Moreover, I ventured the prediction that a more diligent search would prove that 

 this cosmopolitan species exists, and jiroliably had alrea<ly ))een i-ollected at some of the 

 above points. 



- Kuropean Sjiiders, page 231, Nov. Acta. Keg. Soc. Sci., Ilpsal., 1S70. 



■' Von der Decken's Travels in East Africa, III., ii., jjage 4S2. 



