448 On the Habits and Distribution q/'Lycosa ingens. 



For these reasons I persist in my assertion that Butler's 

 Tarsolepis remicauda is identical, generically as well as spe- 

 cifically, with Hiibner's Crinodes Sommeri. 



After all, I may remark that it is not impossible that G. 

 Sommeri occurs also in the New World*, although I rather 

 believe it to be a mistake — just as seems to be the case with 

 Hemeroblemmaperopaca, which, according to Hiibner (' Zutrage 

 zur Sammlung exotischer Schraetterlinge,' No. 271, figs. 541 

 & 542) , is from Monte Video, but has since been sent over 

 from Sumatra, Java, Ternate (coll. Royal Mus. Leyden), and 

 Celebes (Mr. Snellen's coll.), and also, with Ophiusa magica^ 

 received by Dr. Boisduval from Madagascar and Bengal 

 (' Faune Entomologique de Madagascar, Bourbon et Maurice,' 

 Lepidopt^res, p. 100), and by the Royal Museum of Leyden 

 from Java, and not from Monte Video as stated by Hiibner 

 (Zutrage &c.. No. 268, figs. 535 & 536). 



Leyden, November 1872. 



LXV. — On the Habits and Distribution o/Lycosa ingens {Bl.). 

 By the Rev. 0. P. Cambridge, M.A., C.M.Z.S. 



Accounts of the habits of spiders must always be interesting 

 to arachnologists, and especially important to those who may 

 themselves be unable to see their objects of study in a living 

 state. The question, therefore, now raised (not for the first 

 timet) by Mr. F. Pollock's account (Ann. Nat. Hist., Oct. 1872, 

 p. 271) of the habits of Lycosa ingens (Bl.) is one on which, 

 as an arachnologist, I should wish to have some clearer and 

 more detailed evidence. I allude to the possibility of a spider 

 swallowing solid matter; in the instance recorded by Mr. 

 Pollock the solid matter consisted of the " bones, and head, and 

 claws and all " of a lizard 3 inches long, " the only remnant 

 of the feast being a small ball about j of an inch in diameter." 

 My own impression has always been that no arachnid could 

 do more than swallow the juices of its prey, or at most such 

 other parts as could be so completely comminuted by the action 

 of the fangs, falces, and maxillse as to be enabled to pass in a 

 kind of semifluid state through the simple but very small 

 passage to the stomach. Did Mr. Pollock's spider thus com- 

 minute the " bones, head and all " of the lizard, except that 

 small portion represented by the ball of a quarter of an inch in 



* I am informed (October 14tli, 1872) by Mr. Walker that at present 

 he has no opportunity of inspecting the specimen from Rio Janeiro, 

 mentioned in the ' List of tlie Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the 

 Collection of the British Museum ' (/. c), because it is no longer in Mr. 

 Fry's collection. 



t Vide ' Entomologist ' for June 1870, No. 77, pp. 65-67. 



