484 SOME NEW ARANEIDjE of new south wales, 



All the individuals are exceedingly active and difficult to 

 capture. Simon says* : " Les uns (Hersilia) se tiennent sur les 

 troncs d'arbres et les vieilles murailles ou leur coloration, grise 

 ou blanchatre, leur permet de se dissimuler; elles ne filentaucune 

 toile; les autres {Tama, Hersiliola) habitent sous les pierres ou 

 dans les fissures de rochers; elle se tiennent toujours sous la voute 

 formee par la pierre ou elles tendent quelques fils tres irreguliers, 

 a la maniere des Pholctis." 



Only two members of the family Hersiliidce have previously 

 been recorded from Australia (Tama novai-hollandice and T. 

 pickerti), and these were described by L. Koch under the generic 

 name Chalinura (1876). Simon, however, in his work already 

 quotedf assigns them to the genus Tama, E. Sim.,! (1882), the 

 former being a synonym. It will be seen from the above quota- 

 tion that spiders of the genus Tama should be sought for under 

 stones or in the fissures of rocks. The specimens captured by 

 me (2 g and 29), and for which I propose the name Tama- 

 eucalypti, were taken from the trunks of two Eucalyptus trees at 

 Balmoral, Sydney, the grey bark of which they closely simulated. 

 I saw none of these spiders on any of the neighbouring rocks, nor 

 did I observe any webs constructed by them for the capture of 

 prey. Indeed, from their movements it appeared to me that 

 they relied upon their dexterity for food. At the foot of his 

 description of Tama (Chalinura) nova}-hollandiai,§ Ludwig Koch 



* Loc. clt., pp. 444 and 445. 

 t Loc. cit., p. 446. 

 I In his introduction to the study of the Hersiliidce, Simon adds a foot- 

 note (Hist. Nat. d. Araignees, pp. 440-441) in which he says: " Le genre 

 Chalinura, propose par Dalraan (Vet. Akad. Handl., 1826), pour une 

 Araignee (C. longipes) contenue dans un rnorceau de gomme copal, est con- 

 temporain du genre Hersilia, Aud., et il est bien difficile de decider lequel 

 des deux noms a la priorite. Dans tous les cas, ces deux noms sont entiere- 

 ment synonymes et celui de Chalinura ne peut adjourd'hui etre applique a 

 un genre plus recent demembre de celui des Hersilia, comme l'a propose 

 Thorell (St. Eag. Mai., etc., iv., 1889-90, p. 319)." 



§ Die Arachniden Australiens. Band ii., p. 830. 



