THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST, dS'- 



ON THE KATIPO, OR POISONOUS SPIDER OF NEW 



ZEALAND. 



By T. S. Ralph, M.R.C.S.E. 



(Read before the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, nth June, 



1888.; 



My first acquaintance with the katipo in New Zealand dates 

 back thirty-five years ago. The Maoris believe it to be 

 poisonous, and for this reason I had considerable difliculty in 

 obtaining a specimen for examination. 



Habits. — As far as my experience goes, and the information 

 I have been able to collect, this spider is not met with in other 

 localities than on sandy soil and under plants living on sand- 

 hills, chiefly on the sea coast. And unless one had a practical 

 experience regarding its haunts and habits, it would be difficult 

 to light upon the katipo, as this creature hides itself well away 

 under its protecting bushes. The danger of being bitten by any 

 one of them seems to me to be very remote, so that unless a 

 man makes these sand-inhabiting bushes a resting place for the 

 night, or unless such localities are invaded by children playing 

 about and under them, and the spider is roughly handled or 

 intruded upon, they are not likely to cauiBe any injury. At the 

 date to which I refer, I made some observations, and these 

 reaching England, found their way, through a friend, into the 

 proceedings of the Linnean Society of London ; and lately, on 

 visiting New Zealand, I occupied a short space of time in 

 renewing my acquaintance with these creatures. I may here 

 mention that my name has been treasured up in Wellington in 

 relation to these spiders, so that I was spoken to by a man who 

 in his youth had heard of katipos, and with them my name duly 

 enbalmed. Through this meeting I was able to obtain speci- 

 mens, for we immediately chummed and went together to the 

 hunting-ground — viz., to the sandy ridge separating the harbour 

 of Wellington from the open sea. Tradition states — with what 

 truth I cannot say — that over this isthmus or ridge Captain 

 Cook sailed in his earliest visit to Wellington, the ridge being 

 then fairly under water, but has evidently been raised up by 

 earthquake movement since his day. On this occasion of our 

 exploration we got for our share of plunder some forty or fifty 

 spiders. But the natural ferocity of these creatures must have 

 been greatly excited, as the majority of them were killed in a 

 general ?)ieree on their way to my home, and so they were lost 

 to science, though still to memory dear. Since then, lately 

 finding myself again in their habitat in Wellington, I went to 

 my old quarters, and had a good hunt. On this occasion I was- 

 much assisted by my wife, who, though at first inimical to my 

 way, soon fell into the line of activity, and beat the bushes, 

 and discovered their quarry for me. I captured them by pick- 



