316 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



situations abounding in vegetable debris have always had foreign 

 matter, in the shape of dead leaves, woven into the texture. 

 Unfortunately I have never succeeded in collecting a cocoon. 

 These spiders obtain their prey by hunting, or by laying in wait ; 

 they can run fast, and will rush rapidly out of their hiding places 

 in pursuit of passing insects. The Dysdera have six eyes, arranged 

 in two rows, and in the form of a transverse oval ; the pair com- 

 prising the front row are somewhat the largest, and are widely 

 separated from each other ; the four constituting the second row 

 are pro-curved, and of these the median pair are not only sensibly 

 the largest, but are also the closest together. 



The genus Ariadna, Aud. in Sav., (sub-family Segestriinse) 

 occurs in " Regio mediterranea; Africa austr. ; ins. Taprobane; 

 ins. Samatra; Japonia (lateralis, Karsch) ; Nova-hollandia et 

 Tasmania (^sep'?new<rt^a, E. Sim.); America sept.; Antillse; America 

 merid. : Venezuela, Colombia, Brasilia, Resp. Argent, et Chili." ^ 



These spiders are not so active as those of the preceding sub- 

 family. Their white silken tubes are constructed in nooks and 

 crannies, such as the fissures of rocks, holes in walls, depressions 

 in the trunks of trees, or under bark. The texture of the tubes 

 is very close and strong ; the orifice is round, and strengthened by 

 a girdle of white silk irregularly woven. The cocoons are white, 

 and lenticular; the eggs numerous, but not agglutinated. Ariadna 

 has six eyes, of which the laterals are much the smallest and the 

 widest apart. 



e E.-Simon-ioc. cit., p. 322. 



