NOTES ON THE ARCHITECTURE, NESTING-HABITS, and 

 LIFE-HISTORIES of AUSTRALIAN ARANEID^, based 

 ON SPECIMENS IN THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



By W. J. Rainbow, F.L.S., Entomologist. 



Part I.— THE TERRITELARIiE. 



The Aranese Theraphosse include all those Spiders which construct 

 subterranean tubes, some of which are protected by a trap-door 

 or lid. These are divided into three families — Liphistiidaa, Avi- 

 culariidje, and Atypidfe. Of these, the first, consisting of only 

 one genus, Liphistius, Schiodte, is peculiar to the islands of 

 Penang and Sumatra. The second, Aviculariidse, is divided by 

 Simon into seven sub-families, and representatives of it are found 

 in all parts of the world. The third, Atypidje, although not so 

 numerous as the preceding group, occurs in Europe, America, 

 Africa, Japan, and Malaysia. 



The Australian species, as far as at present known, belong 

 solely to the Avicularidse. Formerly these Spiders were included 

 under the generic name of Mygale,^ Walck. (1802), a term which 

 had, however, two years earlier, been used by Cuvier for a genus 

 of Mammals, belonging to the family Talpidse, and popularly 

 known as Moles. 



Vernacularly these Araneids are known as "Trap-door Spiders," 

 from the fact that many of their dwellings are provided at the 

 entrance with a trap-door. These doors are of two kinds : the 

 thick, or " cork-lid " type, and the thin, or " wafer " type. Most 

 of these Spiders are terrestrial, but some have quitted the ground 

 in favour of an arboreal existence. The latter are included in the 

 sub-families Miginse and Diplurinae, typical genera of which are 

 Moggridgea, Camb., of South Africa, and Macrothele, Auss., of 

 Spain, Malaysia, and New Zealand. Some species of the latter 

 genus, however, inhabit the fissures of rocks. One species, Macro- 

 thele huttoni, Camb., together with nests, I collected at Wanganui, 

 New Zealand, some years ago. The nests were small, and built 

 upon the trunks of trees, the silk composing the outer wall being 

 covered with chips of bark and lichen, rendering detection very 

 difficult ; the operculum or lid was of the wafer type. 



1 Myogale is the modern form of this word. 



