NOTES ON LIFE-HISTORIES OF AUSTRALIAN AEANELD^ — RAINBOW. 1 1 



Siam, Cochin China ; Malaysia — Sumatra, Borneo, the Mollucas ; 

 New Guinea ; North, Eastern, and Central Australia.-" 



The Aviculariinffi rarely excavate a tube, but avail themselves 

 of the natural cavities in the soil or trunks of trees ; these they 

 line with a thick mantle of silk, which is light and transparent, 

 and without a tubiform retreat, and no lid protects the entrance. 

 Their eggs, which are numerous, and not agglutinated, are en- 

 veloped in a cocoon of white, flaccid silk. tSome species carry 

 their cocoons with their falces wherever they go, and never 

 relinquish them until the young are hatched out. 



Phlogins crassipes, L. Koch, is a large tunnel-boring species. 

 It is known, popularly, by the white settlers as the " Barking 

 Spider," owing to the peculiar stridulating noise which it makes. 

 The sound produced, however, is more of a whistling nature, 

 hence it would be more appi-opriately termed the " Whistling 

 Spider." Professor Baldwin Spencer investigated sounds supposed 

 to emanate from Spiders at Alice Springs, and came to the con- 

 clusion that the noises ascribed to them were evidently made by 

 birds — probably quails. The latter frequent the very parts — ■ 

 grassy flats amongst the hills — where the sounds are heard and 

 the Spiders live ; and they are most abundant just after rainfalls, 

 when also the sound is heard most frequently. Not only tliis, 

 but they actually produce a noise which is apparently identical 

 with that attributed to the Spider. The time spent in observing 

 the animals was not, however, altogether thrown away, as one 

 day, whilst teasing a large female (which had been kept in a tin 

 box for ten days), with a piece of straw, it raised its body and, 

 rubbing its palpi against the mandibles, made a distinctly audible 

 whistling noise. '^^ The stridulating organs, responsible for the noise 

 referred to, are fully described and figured by the narrator." 



The burrow of Phlogius is made in hard ground ; it is deep, 

 and, as noted by Professor Spencer in his account of P. crassipes, 

 is directed downwards in a slanting direction to the depth of a 

 foot and a half, or even more, when it ends in a more or less 

 spherical space of about two inches in diameter. As previously 

 stated, no lid is made. 'J'he Spiders occupy these burrows during 

 the daytime, but quit them at night, when they emerge in quest 

 of prey, which usually consists of large beetles. At the bottom 

 of the burrows there is invariably an accumulation of debris con- 

 sisting of the remains of beetles upon which the spiders have fed. 

 The species occurs in Queensland, Northern New South Wales, 

 and Central Australia. A nest, measuring six inches in length, 

 made by a young specimen, is in the Australian Museum. It was 

 taken in Queensland. 



20 Simon— ioc. cit., p. 146. 



21 Report Horn Expl. Exp., ii., 1896, Zoology, p. 413. 



22 Spencer — Loc. cit., p. 414, pi. xxviii. 



