South Indian Araclinology . 223 



Locality. Nawalapitiya, Ceylon (February-May), 3000 

 feet. P. torvus (O. P.-C) belongs to Ceylon ; P. argentatus 

 (Dol.) is Malayan, while P. alticeps (Poc.) is reported by 

 Gravely from Cochin. 



(Ecobiidas. 



(Ecobius (Luc.), 1845. 



3. (Ecobius sp. ? 



Quite recently, while on the hills, I found several spiders 

 belonging to this group (family), which has only the single 

 genus (Ecobius. These of both sexes were taken while 

 running actively on the outside wall of the house or from the 

 corners of the inside walls of the bath-room. They are small 

 spiders (2 mm. long) and prettily marked witli black on a 

 pale ground. The cephalothorax dorsally edged with black, 

 the ocular area is blackish, while the abdomen dorsally is 

 black in front and elsewhere spotted in black. In the species 

 now mentioned the eyes are of the usual type characteristic 

 of the fainily, but in arrangement they are intermediate 

 between the annulipes and concinnus groups mentioned by 

 Simon (i. page 247). 



Locality. Coonoor, Nilgiris (April-May). Probably here 

 first reported from India. 



Eresidae. 



Stegodyphus (Sim.), 1873. 



4. Stegodyphus sarasinorum (Karsch) 



is the common social spider found throughout South India. 

 Mr. N. S. Jambunatlian thirteen years ago published an 

 account of it in the ' Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections.' 

 This spider is found both in the plains and on the hills and 

 always on bushes round the end branches where the colony is 

 built. Opuntia on the plains and Dodonea and Berberis on 

 the hills are often found bearing the web-masses, but the 

 spider builds quite readily on the netting round tennis-courts. 

 These web-masses are easily recognized yards away and are 

 often several feet above the ground. Centrally the web-mass 

 forms a spindle, about 6" X 4" at the widest part, which is 

 well aerated by many holes. Many threads, which are strono- 

 and viscid, connect up this spindle to the neighbouring 

 branches. Jambunatlian gives 40-100 as the number of 

 spiders found within one spindle. I have not found many 



17* 



