1896.] SPIDERS FROM THE LOWER AMAZONS, 717 
of the group Triclariine vie with the essentially semi-aquatic 
Dolomedes in displaying their skill in running upon and diving 
beneath the surface, out of sight and out of ‘Teach of enemies in 
pursuit. 
Throughout the three first-mentioned regions there are, of 
course, certain Spider forms found sprinkled equally over each— 
as, for instance, the ubiquitous Avicularia, the “Aranha caran- 
juejira,” the crab-spider par eacellence of the native Brazilian. 
But there are also many special forms, each of them peculiar to 
their special district. 
Here one finds, too, 4000 miles on the other side of the globe, 
beneath an equatorial sun, forms strangely familiar to the English 
naturalist in districts of similar physical character at home. 
The sandy campos, for instance, furnish us with a Lycosa, in 
colour adapted to its environment, and curiously similar to the 
Lycosa picta of our English sand-dunes. 
In the forest, Epeirids, Theridide, and Salticids swarm, of every 
shape and hue. Thomisids, too, the majority very similar to 
European species in general character, to which the pure white 
waxen Hripus, lurking in some snow-white blossom, is a notable 
exception. 
One must not, however, have the impression that the Spider- 
fauna of tropical America is much the same as that of England. 
We have nothing, for instance, to compare with the curious 
Gastracanthids, the crimson-spined Micrathena schreibersi, or the 
numerous species of the thorny-backed genus Gastracantha. We 
have nothing to match the huge Nephila with her diminutive 
husband, or the lovely Argiope argentata stretched on the white 
silken cross in the centre of its orbicular snare. Except an Atypus 
or two, we have nothing to take the place of the 250 species and 
upwards of the Mygalomorphe which are found in Southern and 
Central America. So that, although many a familiar form will 
meet the eye of the English arachnologist on the Amazons, yet 
there are countless forms differing in size, in structure, and in 
colour from anything that he can find amongst the Spider-fauna of 
Northern Europe. 
One must confess, too, that at the present time arachnologists 
still know newt to nothing of the Spiders of Brazil. Nor do I 
speak only of differences specific, a more extended knowledge of 
which merely multiplies the known species ten or a hundredfold: 
nor only of a knowledge which enables us with certainty to pair 
this female with that male which, according to the laws of Nature, 
rightfully belongs to her—a matter of no little difficulty even to 
specialists. I refer rather to our knowledge of almost everything 
which has to do with their habits and domestic economy. We 
must confess, for instance, that we do not yet know the staple 
diet of so common and so well-known a Spider as the huge 
Avicularia. Though I was out night after night, and though 
I watched, on several occasions the whole night through, the 
tunnels of twenty and upwards of the sand-burrowing “* Mygale,” 
