PULMONARI^. 175 



The naturalist just mentioned, stated to me, that he had taken a 

 hundred of them from a single cocoon(l). 



This Mygale — Aranea avicularia, L.; KU'em. Insect. XI, and 

 XII, the male — is about an inch and a half long, blackish, and 

 , extremely hairy; the extremity of the feet and palpi, and the 

 inferior pili of the mouth reddish. The genital organ of the 

 male is hollow at base, and terminates in an elongated and very 

 acute point. 



South America and the Antilles produce other species, 

 called by the French colonists Araign^es-crahes. Their bite is 

 reputed to be dangerous. A very large species — M.fasciata; 

 Seb., Mus., I, Ixix, i; Walck., Hist, of Spiders, IV, i, the female 

 — is also found in the East Indies. A species, nearly as large 

 as the avicularia, inhabits the Cape of Good Hope. Another 

 of the same division — M. Valcntina — was discovered in the sandy 

 and desert districts of Moxenta, in Spain, by M. Dufour, who 

 has described and figured it in the Ann. of the Phys. Sciences, 

 Brussels, vol. V. Walckenaer has also described a second 

 species from that peninsula which has two prominences above 

 its respiratory organs. These two latter species form a parti- 

 cular group, characterized by the hooks of the tarsi, which are 

 salient or exposed(2). 

 In the following Mygales(3), the superior extremity of the first 

 joint of the chelicerae presents a series of spines, articulated and 

 movable at base — according to the observations of Dufour — and 

 forming a sort of rake. 



The tarsi are less pilose underneath than in the preceding divi- 

 sion, and their hooks are always exposed. The males of one species, 

 the only ones I have seen, have more complicated organs of gene- 

 ration than those of the preceding division. The principal and 

 scaly piece incloses a peculiar, semiglobular body, terminating in a 

 bifid point, in an inferior cavity(4). 



These species, in the dry and mountain districts of the south of 

 Europe and of some other countries, excavate subterraneous galle- 



(1) See my memoir on the habits of the Avicularia in the Ann. du Mus. d'Hist. 

 Nat. VIII, p. 456. 



(2) For details concerning' these and the following species, as well as for the 

 other genera of this family, see the corresponding articles in the Nouv. Diet. 

 d'dist. Nat., where we treat of them at length. 



(3) The genus Ctexiza, Lat., Fam. Nat. du Ragne Animal. 



(4) On this point I am contradicted by M. Dufour. I was compelled again to 

 examine the fact, and have convinced myself that 1 was not mistaken. It is poss- 

 ible the specimens he examined did not present this character. 



