NOTES ON LIFE-HISTORIES OF AUSTRALIAN ARANEID^ — RAINBOW. 313 



The interior of buildings, caves, fissures of rocks, under stones, 

 herbage, and trunks of trees (near the ground), are the favourite 

 haunts of Scytodes. They are very slow in their movements. The 

 webs are small, very irregular, and composed of a few loose lines 

 apparently thrown out at random. «S. thoracica carries its cocoon, 

 which is globular and of a brown colour, under its sternum, where 

 it is held in place by the falces and palpi. 



According to Simon, some Malaysian species, notably »S'. pallida, 

 Dal., which is very common in the Philippines, are somewhat 

 different in their spinning habits, and are frequently found on 

 the leaves of trees, which they roll much after the manner of the 

 ClubionidfB and Theridiidse." 



Fig. 24. Fig. 25. 



I have collected S. marmorata and S. thoracica (1) both in rock 

 shelters and buildings. In these spiders the cephalothorax is very 

 high behind, convex, and sloping sharply forward ; the eyes (six) are 

 arranged in three series of two each, and of these each lateral pair 

 is placed obliquely, and the third or median pair are situated well 

 forward; the falces are very weak (Figs. 24 and 25). 



Family OONOPID^. 



Simon has divided this family into two sections, viz., Oonopidse 

 molles and Oonopidfe loricatse,^ and of these the latter only occurs, 

 so far as is at present known, in Australia. It would not be at all 

 surprising, however, if species referable to the first section should 

 hereafter be discovered upon this continent, Orchestina, E. Sim., 

 for instance, is a genus that may reasonably be expected, seeing 

 that it is so widely distributed, species having been recorded 

 from the Mediterranean region and Central Arabia, South Africa, 

 Island of Taprobane, the Philippines, New Zealand, and Venezuela. 

 Oonops, Tempi, is another widely distributed genus, the range of 

 which is Europe and the Atlantic Islands, the Antiles and Vene- 

 zuela, Egypt and South Africa, the Islands of Maderia and 

 Taprobane. 



Oonopidas molles embrace all those spiders the abdomen of 

 which is wholly soft and devoid of plates or scales; sometimes, 



2 Simon — Loc. cii., p. 276. 



3 Simon— Loc. cit., pp. 292 and 296. 



