748 Jill. P. o. PioKAKD OAMBEiDGB ON [June 16, 



hung by a tuft or two of hairy campos-grass or arched over 

 behind with a few dry leaves, the first two pairs of legs, pedipalps, 

 aud maadibles aloue visible ; ia colour closely similar to the sur- 

 rounding sand. A footfall, or a shadow, and they would vanish. 

 What their food may be I cannot say, for no debris was ever to bo 

 found in the burrow. Do they wait for it to come within reach, or 

 do they go aud seek it ? I think the former. On several occasions, 

 liaving sat up all night and now and again, at intervals of an hour, 

 been the round of the burrows, each tenant was always found in 

 exactly the same position ; nor did I ever find one running about 

 at night over the campos or in the forest. They may possibly, 

 however, dash out a few feet and seize their prey when it passes, 

 but I do not think they actually go in search of it. 



What the males do with themselves I am utterly unable to say, 

 for though I watched and searched and waited many times at night 

 aud dug out numerous burrows, yet on no occasion did I find a 

 male within, nor find one, as I fully expected to do, running over 

 the sand outside. 



Females were taken in all stages of development, though it is 

 quite possible 1 was too late for the male sex. 



In spinning the trumpet-shaped mouth to the burrow, the Spider 

 takes up a position with the abdomen and hind legs only appearing 

 from the burrows, aud then by rubbing the spinners backwards and 

 forwards covers the ground round the entrance with fine white silk. 

 The large white cocoon, formed of a loose bag of silk, containing 

 from 80-100 eggs, lies loose in the slightly enlarged end of the 

 burrow. When the young are first hatched, they nourish them- 

 selves on the moist envelopes of the eggs, whence they have just 

 emerged. Later they may be found crowding the entrance of the 

 den or below with their mother. 



Contrary to one's expectation, the temperament of these spiders 

 upjiears to be gentle ; though raising themselves on the hind legs 

 and striking with the mandibles when irritated, yet there is no 

 inclination to initiate an attack. Neitlier in confinement, 

 though starving for want of food, since they would eat neither 

 worms, caterpillars, crickets, cockroaches, moths, nor millipedes, 

 did they show any inclination to attack each other nor the 

 young spiders which were with them. Water they drank eagerly 

 enough. 



Nothing could be externally more unlike than the Spiders I have 

 included in this genus aud those usually included in the genera 

 Aviculcn-ia and Tapinaucheni-iis. The latter are much more hairy 

 and the first pair of legs are equal to or less than the fourth pair. 

 In the former the legs are not clothed \\ith long hairs, and the 

 first pair are longer than the fourth. The coxte, femora, and 

 patella, too, of the first two pairs of legs are very stout, while 

 those of the third and fourth pairs are more slender, especially 

 the fourth, in Avicularia and Tajpinauchenius the tarsi and pro- 

 tarsi of all four pairs are broad and spatuliform ; in Santaremia 

 those of the third pair are much less so than those of the first 



