150 SPIDERS 



known genus is Liphistius, are restricted to Burma, the Malay 

 Peninsula and neighbouring countries. Several of the species such 

 as L. desultor reach a fair size but very little is known of their 

 habits. Some live exclusively in caves; all in burrows in the ground. 



In the sub-order Mygalomorpha, which includes the so-called 

 'bird-eating' spiders of the tropics, the articulation of the mand- 

 ibles with the prosoma is vertical so that they project forward, the 

 fang or second segment closing straight backward or nearly so. 

 The spiders of this group are confined to temperate and tropical 

 regions of the world where they are represented by large numbers 

 of genera and species belonging to several families. The best 

 known of these are the Theraphosidae, often erroneously spoken 

 of as 'Tarantulas', which include the largest species known, the 

 Ctenizidae or trap-door spiders which are famous for the perfec- 

 tion of their burrows, and the Atypidae which include the purse- 

 web spider Atypus affinis, the sole British representative of the sub- 

 order. This, one of our largest species, has a shining reddish black 

 colour and is provided with enormous chelicerae. In the steaming 

 jungles of South America live the largest spiders of all. A male 

 Theraphosa sp. from French Guiana may measure three inches in 

 length with a leg span exceeding ten inches, while an enormous 

 female Lasiodora sp. from Brazil is recorded as having a body 3f 

 inches long and a weight of almost 3 oz. (Gertsch, 1949).* 



Bristowe (1947) relates that the hero of Milan is claimed to have 

 slain a monstrous spider which had been lapping up the lamp oil 

 of the Cathedral Church in 1751. 'After death, we are told, it 

 weighed 4 lb. or somewhat more than a large Pekinese! Another, 

 with similar oil-drinking habits, made its home in St. Eustace's 

 Church in Paris, and I suspect the sexton was under grave sus- 

 picion of borrowing the oil himself until he reported seeing "a 

 spider of enormous dimensions come down the chain by which the 

 lamp was suspended, drink up the oil, and when gorged to satiety 

 slowly retrace its steps".' The largest British house spider, Tegen- 

 aria parietina, has a body length of about f inch and a leg span of 

 about five inches. It has been recorded that, in 1936, a policeman 

 on point duty at Lambeth Bridge held up the London traffic for 

 some minutes to allow an outsize example to cross the road in 

 safety — which it did, much to the delight of passers-by. There is 



