Order 1. 



PULMONARIA. 



457 



of which, in a state of repose, occupy a circular space of six or seven inches in diameter, and [are asserted] to 

 seize Huraniing--birds. They form their nests in the slits of trees, beneath the bark, in the cavities of stones and 

 rocks, or on the surface of leaves of various vegetables. The cell of the J/, avicularia is in the shape of.a tube, nar- 

 rowed into a point at its posterior extremity. It is composed of a white web of very fine texture, semitransparent, 

 like muslin. M. Goudot gave me a nest which was about seven or eight inches long, and about two inches broad. 

 The cocoon of this species had the size and shape of a large nut. Its envelope, formed of the same materials as 

 the nest, consists of three layers. It appears that the young are there hatched, and undergo their tirst moulting. 

 This naturalist informs me that he has obtained as many as a hundred young ones from one cocoon. (See my 

 memoir on the habits of the Mi/gale avicularia, Lin., in those of the Mus. d'Hist. Nat., torn. vii. p. 456.) The 

 body of this species is about an inch and a half long, black, and very hairy, with the tips of the palpi, legs, &c., 

 reddish. 



South America and the Antilles also furnish other species, which are known to the French colonists under the 

 name of Spider-Crabs, and of which the bite is reputed very dangerous. There is also a large East Indian species 

 (M. /asciata,Seha); and a species is brought from the Cape of Good Hope, nearly as large as 31. avicularia. 

 Another species (M. valentina) has been discovered in the arid deserts of Moxenta, in Spain, by M. Dufour; and 

 another, from the same country, has been described by Walckenaer (M. calpeiana). These two species form a 

 particular group, having the ungues exposed. (See further our articles on this and the allied genera in the Xouv. 

 Diction. d^Uist. Nat., second edition.) 



The other species of Mygale (forming the genns Cteniza, Latr., in Fam. Nat.) have a transverse row of move- 

 able corneous spines at the superior extremity of the basal joint of the chelicera. The tarsi are less hairy beneath 

 than in the preceding, and their ungues are always exposed. They construct, in dry shelving situations exposed 

 to the sun, in the southern parts of Europe, &c., subterranean cylindrical galleries, often two feet deep, and so 

 tortuous that the traces of them are often lost. They moreover construct, at the entrance, a moveable lid formed 

 of silk and earth, lixed by a hinge, and which, by its precise size, inclination, and weight, closely shuts the open- 

 ing, scarcely so as to permit the place of the nest to be distinguished from the neighbouring soil, 'llie inner surface 

 of the lid is lined with silk, which enables the animal to hold it down, and prevent its being pulled open. "When 

 taken by violence from its nest, the Mygale is stupid, and offers no resistance. A silken tube, forming the nest, 

 lines the interior of the gallery. M. Dufour is of opinion that the males do not make these burrows, being gene- 

 rally found under stones, and appearing less favoureil with organs fitted for those works. We presume, with 

 M. Dufour, that our M. carminans is only the male of M. ccementaria, Latr., although M. Walckenaer is of a dif- 

 ferent opinion. The latter species, described ^iy Sauvages under the name of the Mason-Spider (Hist, de PAcad. 

 de«&ie«c.,1758),andby Dorthes under th.itof the Jlining-Spider (LiViw. Trans,, vol. ii. 17, 18), is about two-thirds 

 of an inch long, and is found in the southern departments of France, Spain, &c. Another species (.1/. fodiens, 



Walck., M. Sauvagesii, Duf., Rossi), is rather larger than the preceding, and 

 inhabits Tuscany and Corsica. The Museum d'Histoire Naturelle possesses 

 a block of earth in wliich four of its nests are arranged in a regular square. 

 [M. V. Audouin has published a long account of these nests in the Annates de 

 la ^ocietc Entomologique de France.] IM. Lefebvre has also brought another 

 distinct species from Sicily, and another is found in Jamaica, (M. nidulans), 

 which, together with its nest, has been figured by Brown in his Natural 

 History of that island, pi. 44, f. 3. 



[It is to Madame Merian that we owe the origin of the story that the large 



American Mygale attacks and kills small birds ; this lady, in her splendid 



work on the insects of Surinam, not only asserting this, but figuring the 



Spider in the act of feeding on a Humming-bird which it had dragged oft' its 



nest. Hence originated the idea that the Mygale spun the webs which are 



met with in tropical climates, of sufficient force to hold small birds, but 



which are the production of a species of Epeira. Mr. MacLeay, in the 



first volume of the Transactions of the Zoological Society, has attacked 



violence, giving her credit for all that subsequent compilers chose to add 



did not assert that the Mygale forms these webs, nor is such the case, 



^s movements keeps close to the earth, its food 



On a living Humming-bird being placed into its 



Fig. 28. — Mygale fodiens. 



this lady's writings with great 



to her account. She, however, 



for that spider lives in holes under ground, and in all i^ 



consiting of luli, subterranean Crickets, and Cockroaches. 



hole by Mr. MacLeay, the Spider even quitted it ; whence he disbelieves the existence of any bird-catching Spider ; 

 but JI. Moreau de Jonnfes expressly mentions that it climbs the branches of trees to devour the young of Humming- 

 birds, &c. Latreille published an elaborate memoir upon this genus in the Nouvelles Annates die Museum, vol. i., 

 and more recently M. Walckenaer has described thirty-six species of this genus in his Uistoire Naturelle des 

 Insectes Apteres. 



The M. nidulans, which is sufficiently abundant in the West Indian islands, has been figured, together with its nest, 

 by Mr. Kirby in his Bridgewater Treatise. It is also figured in Griffith's translation of the Regne Animal, but 

 regarded as an undescribed species, named N. nitida. Mr. Sells has communicated some curious observations on 

 It and its nest to the Entomological Society of London.] 



Those species (of Theraphoses) which have the palpi inserted on an inferior dilatation on the outside of the 

 maxillae, and 5-jointed ; the tongue very small in Atypus, but which becomes longer and advanced between the 

 niaxillffi in the following genera, which is its general character: the last joint of the palpi in both sexes long and 



