338 



RKCORDS OF TflE AUSTKALIAX MUSEUM. 



carved images, and in New Britain it is used as a material in the 

 manufacture of "Smothering Caps." A specimen of the hitter has 

 beenpresented to the Trustees of the AustraHan Museum by Dr. J. C. 

 Cox, President of the Board of Trustees. It is conical in shape, 

 about 2ft. -i^in. long and 8 inches round the base, somewhat 

 flexible, and therefore capable of distension. In the manufacture 

 of tht^se caps a shaped frame is ptissed over and under the webs 

 of orb-sveaving spiders until a suffieienc}' of the material is felted 

 thereon ; it is then removed in one piece. It is said that these caps 

 are used for smothering adulterous women. On the atoll of Funa- 

 futi, the natives utili.se the webs of orb- weaving spiders for making 

 nets to catch mosquitoes and other insects. A forked stick is 

 converted into a hoop by tying together the extremities of the 

 arms of the fork. This is then passed over and over through 

 orbicular snares until the hoop is filled by a membrane of glut- 

 inous spider tlu'eads. With tliis implement any insect would lie 

 struck and meshed.'-^'' 



Herennie;e is a small group consisting of only one genus and a 

 \ery few species. The genus Ihri'tmia, Thor., ranges through 

 " Asia tropica, Melaisia et Papuasia."-'' It is not unreasonable 

 therefore to assume that it may hereafter be recorded from North- 

 ern Queensland. 



Family HYPOCHILIDyE. 



ECTATOSTICA TROGLODYTES, Hui<J <indVftt. 



(Fig. 5-1). 

 In a former volume of these Records I 

 figured and redescribed Higgins and 

 Petterd's species — Eatatostica tragi udijfi'.-t 

 ^llierid'wM iroijlodytp.ip and quoted from 

 their paper* a note re the " nest " or 

 cocoon of the species. Since the publi- 

 cation of my paper a cocoon has beeii 

 I added to the collection in the Australian 

 Museum (fig. 54). It is pear shaped, 

 and was suspended by a narrow neck; 

 wliite, densely and closely woven, and 

 filled with a large number of yellow eggs, 

 the latter surrounded by a quantity of 

 white loose flocculent silk. The female 

 hangs over her cocoon, and stoutly 

 defends eggs and young. 



Fig. 54. 



Xest of T^l. trofflodyfex, 

 Higg. and Pett. 



•-■■' Rainbow— Aiut. Mas. Mem , iii., 2, 1897, p. 96. 



■^'' Simon — Hist. Xat. des Araign.'es, lul. 2, i., 1892, p. 759. 



"^■^ Rainbow— Rec. Aust. Mus , v., 5, 19U-t, pp. 32G-9, pi. xlvi., figa 1-4. 



28 Higgina and Petterd— Proc. Roy. Soc. Tas., 188.3, p. 198. 



