222 Dr. W. Rae Sherriffs on 



almost vertically. The cocoon s about 7 mm. at greatest 

 width, has from 6-10 lobes, and contains from 14-50 eggs. 

 Thorell's account of the cocoon is incorrect as regards colour 

 (page 127). Gravely in the 'Records of the Indian 

 Museum/ xi. pages 533, 534, has noted the association of 

 Uloborids with Siegodyphus sarasinorum, Psechrus alticeps, 

 Cyrtophora cicatrosa, and O aster acantha hrevispina. I have 

 seen U. geniculates associated with Nephila malabarensis. 

 The spider is not a common one, and is never found in large 

 numbers. I have usually got it within outhouses. 



Locality. Nawalapitiya, Ceylon (February), 3000 feet ; 

 Kayencolam, Travancore (July) ; Elliot's Beach, Madras 

 (August) ; High Court compound, Madras (February) ; 

 Hillgrove, Nilgiria (May), 4200 feet ; Ennur (September). 

 As I have found the cocoons present on each of these 

 occasions, these must be made regularly throughout the year. 

 The spider is thus widespread over South India, both on the 

 plains and also on the hills. Not previously reported from 

 South India. 



Psechridse. 



Psechrus (Thorell), 1878. 



2. Psechrus torvus (O. P.-Camb.) (PI. II. figs. 1, 2) 



comes out in the evenings and is nocturnal. Its web is 

 large, of a- very dense white, often projecting from under a 

 stone on the banks of the roadsides, and ends in a tubular 

 retreat within which the brown spider lurks inverted. The 

 web is not a true dome, cf. ' Cambridge Natural History/ 

 iv. page 399, nor is it sheet-like, cf. Pocock, page 210. 

 Pocock's figure, page 211, should be inverted, because the 

 spider always moves inverted below its web. The calamis- 

 trum is very short. 



P. torvus is very difficult to secure whole because of its 

 very irregular and rapid movements on its web, cf. Simon, 

 i. page 225. The dense white web which is sometimes quite 

 big, as much as 2 feet at greatest length, is rivalled in its 

 snowy whiteness by the smaller but similarly shaped web of 

 the little Ischnothele dumicola (Poc), a Dipleurid reported 

 from Poona by Wroughton. Both P. torvus and /. dumicola 

 occur together on the road-banks of the upcountry tea estates 

 round Nawalapitiya, Ceylon. The web of Ischnothele is 

 much smaller than that of Psechrus, and differs from it in 

 that the tubular retreat spreads out to form the snare as an 

 expanded sheet, upon which the spider moves after its victim. 



