2 24 Annals Entomological Society of America [Vol.1, 



foothills behind the University (March). Many a days' search 

 thru the lowlands and over the foothills, during the last ten 

 months, had left me without finding a single specimen. Just 

 recently, however, my friend, Wm. F. Derby, discovered tw^o 

 , local colonies on Jasper Ridge, amongst the foothills, some three 

 miles west of the University, and brought in a live female to 

 prove his find. Returning to one of these colonies together, w^e 

 secured several specimens, all females, and noted carefully the 

 nesting habits. 



I have before me one male from Ventura Co., three from San 

 Diego (San Jacinto), three from Santa Clara Co., and one from 

 Madera Co. (North Fork), also several females, including fifteen 

 from the Jasper Ridge colonies, none of the females having been 

 studied to any extent, however. In addition to these is an inter- 

 esting series of seven small males and two females from Fort 

 Wingate, N. Mex., kindly loaned me by Mr. Karl Coolidge, of 

 Palo Alto. 



^ Eight species of Eurypelma have been ascribed to the United 

 States (including Lower California), four of which have been 

 described from the male alone, two from the female alone, only 

 two having both male and female described. Five of these species 

 are attributed to California, only one of which has both sexes 

 described, two known only from. the male, two only from the 

 female. Simon, in his "Liste des Especes * * * etc.," gives a key 

 to the males of five species, omiting E. liogaster because the diag- 

 nosis given yields no characters not common to all the others he 

 recognizes, and of course E. calif ornica and E. rileyi, the males of 

 which have not been described. 



A careful study of my material, with reference to the charac- 

 ters selected by Simon as of greatest importance, does not permit 

 me to determine satisfactorily the species that should be repre- 

 sented in the series, and I prefer to group the Californian speci- 

 mens under the oldest name, E. californica, until I have oppor- 

 tunity to collect and examine a much larger series, from man>' 

 localities. 



This is the well-known, large hairy tarantula of the South-west. 

 It is popularly known to dig in the ground, altho, according to 

 Simon, few of the iVviculariinae make a true excavation. I find 

 in an old number of Science (1884, III, 62, "Notes and News," 

 p. 467) an interesting note which I will quote, in part. Speaking 

 of Cteniza californica, it says: * * * "its trapdoor nest is usually 



