138 TRAP-DOOR SPIDERS. 



brown, and covered with short and depressed (rasicci) 

 hairs. The brown spots are disposed in slanting lines, placed 

 obliquely to the median line, which is also brown ; below it is 

 somewhat lighter, and becomes slightly yellow, increasingly 

 so in the female as pregnancy advances. The pulmonal sacs 

 are always pale yellow, and involved in the fold (trainezzati 

 dalla ripiegatura) . Between these, and within the fold itself, 

 the female sexual organ opens, consisting of a transverse 

 opening invisible to the naked eye, but clearly seen on using 

 a lens and removing the fold under which it is concealed, by 

 means of the point of a scalpel or of a pin. The posterior 

 extremity of the anus presents four spinnerets, of which the 

 two upper are much the longer, and composed of four easily 

 seen joints, the lower very short. The feet are moderate, 

 and the longest are of the length of the entire body when 

 this is fully developed (quando e perfettamente sviluppato) ; 

 of these the fourth pair are about a third longer than the 

 first, the third of about the same length as the second, which 

 is the shortest of all. The tarsi of these are armed with two 

 small curved claws, and the third and fourth joint with many 

 long, delicate, straight, and mobile spines, which in the first 

 pair become fewer as they approach the last joint. The eyes 

 are arranged in three lines, as they are represented in C, 

 Plate I., Fig, 3, and of these the two last of the posterior line 

 are white and glistening, the others brown, 



" Our Mygale lives m tubular cavities, or burrows, which she 

 excavates for herself in loose and friable soil, in walls made of 

 volcanic earth, in shady places, and for the most part turned 

 to the north or to the west, seldom to the south — hence cool 

 and rather damp. The burrows do not exceed the length of 

 a palm, eight lines at their widest part. For about the 

 length of an inch the tube is funnel shaped, thence it con- 

 tinues of a nearly uniform magnitude. Its first direction is 

 almost horizontal, then it rises continually, turning to the 

 right or left, and sometimes makes zigzags. As the tubes 

 are excavated in friable soil, she takes care to tapestry them 

 inside with the same glutinous material of which the other 

 races make their web, by means of which the burrows are 

 made smooth on the inside, and to strengthen them in 



