526 Records of the Indian Museum, [Vor 27; 
rested on one of the sides of the nest with the thorax vertical and 
the abdomen horizontal, but it was impossible to see it sufficiently 
clearly in that position for it to be drawn. The nest and eggs 
were first noticed on Sept. 12, about three weeks after the 
creature’s arrival in Calcutta, but they may have been produced a 
few days earlier; no changes were seen to take place in them, and 
eventually they disappeared and the mother left her nest. The 
mother had been captured and placed by herself in a tube at 
Peradeniya on August Iq. 
Tarantulidae. 
The habits of the cavernicolous Charontinae, Stygophrynus 
cavernicola, S. cerberus,and Catagius pustllus, have been described 
by Annandale and myself (J.4.S.B. [n.s.], IX, pp. 417-420). 
A small species of Charontinae, Charinides bengalensis, is com- 
mon in Calcutta. I have been able to study its habits in greater 
detail than those of the cavernicalous species. They closely 
resemble those of the Ceylonese species of Phrynichus on which a 
preliminary note has already appeared (Sfolia Zeylanica, VII, 
pp- 43-4, fig. A) and also those of Phrynichus nigrimanus ', a 
species not uncommon in the Eastern Ghats. The habits of all of 
these may now be considered together, the few differences between 
them being noticed as occasion arises. There is no reason to sup- 
pose that the habits of cavernicolous species differ in any essential 
points from those of these species, apart from the fact that Stygo- 
phrynus does not habitually live under stones or logs of wood, 
but on the walls of caves. 
All species that I have observed’, except those of the genus 
Stygophrynus, live in crevices among bricks or stones, or under logs 
of wood, where there is room for them to move about freely. 
They are almost always found on the under side of the object 
beneath which they hide. Charinides, and doubtless other Charon- 
tinae also, having pulvilli on its feet, can walk up a vertical 
piece of polished glass, or even across its lower surface; but 
Phrynichus, which has no pulvilli, cannot do this. It is unlikely 
that any Tarantulids can burrow; anda specimen of Phrynichus 
ceylonicus that was brought to me after being dug out of a hole 
it had been seen to enter, can hardly have made the burrow for 
itself. 
Phrynichus ceylonicus, s. siy., appears to be a regular inhabi- 
tant of bungalows; but its variety pusillus and Charinides bengal- 
ensis seem to visit them rarely, and it is very doubtful, on account 
of the inability of these species to live in the absence of moisture, 
| This and other species of Phrynichus have been provisionally grouped by 
Kraepelin under the one name P. reniformis, Linn.. See Rec. Ind. Mus., XI, pp. 
447-448. 
2 Mr. Ridley informs me that Savax singapurae is found under bricks and 
among dead leaves; he thinks the latter form its usual home. When specimens 
are collected from under the bricks, others quickly take their places. f 
