THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



No. 75. AUGUST 1843. 



IX. — Observations on the Habits of a large species o/Galeodes. 



By Captain Thomas Hutton *, 

 In the 52nd and 53rd Numbers of the ' Annals and IMagazine of 

 Natural History^ are two letters from Messrs.W. S. MacLeay and 

 W. E, Shuckard, relating to the occasional capture of small birds 

 by certain species of Arachnidce ; and as the subject is one of some 

 interest, I take the liberty of presenting you with a note long- 

 since made by me, on the habits of a large species of Galeodes 

 eonnuon to some parts of India, and for which, if undescribed, I 

 would propose the name of " Galeodes vorax." 



My tii-st observations on this species were made in 1832 at 

 Mirzapore, where it is veiy abundant and of large size, Dming 

 the rainy season it was my constant habit, on a fine evening, to 

 spread a sheet upon the ground near my house, upon which was 

 placed a small lantern to attract insects. 



In a very short time, two or three of these ravenous spiders 

 would make their appearance at the edge of the sheet, but at a 

 respectful distance from each other, and no sooner did a moth, or 

 a beetle, or a cricket alight upon it, than it was snapped up and 

 devoured before I could lay hold of it. There seemed indeed to 

 be no end to the appetite of these creatui*es, for they continued to 

 seize and devom* everything indiscriminately that came within 

 their reach, even to large and hard-winged beetles, cutting them 

 to pieces with their powerful jaws with the greatest ease. Many 

 were the deadly fights I witnessed among these marauders as 

 they trespassed upon each other's beats to get possession of some 

 newly alighted prey, and often was I obliged to kill them in order 

 that I too might in turn obtain some share of the booty. This 

 species is, strictly speaking, noctm-nal, though I have sometimes 

 seen them active in the daytime ; they live beneath stones and 

 in holes in the ground, and never construct a net or other trap for 

 their prey, seizing everything by main force as they roam about 

 in search of food. 



Again I fell in with this species abundantly at Neemuch, where 



* From the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, No. 4.'). 

 Ann. ^ Mag, N. Hist. Vol. xii. G 



