104 MR. E. I. POCOCK o^r THE [June 3, 



blue of its a,bclomen and the vivid red of its cephalothorax. The 

 shell was appai'ently fixed to the grovind by means of a silken 

 attachment, since the shell had to be removed by the insertion of 

 the point of a penknife." 



6. Desis formidabilis O. P. Cambridge. 



Rohso7iia formidabilis 0. P. Cambridge, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1890, 

 p. 625, pi. liii. fig. 5. 



Paradesis formidabilis Pocock, Bull. Liverpool Mus. i. p. 77 

 (1898). 



S. Africa. 



Habits unrecorded. ISTo specimen in British Museum. 



Unfortunately the arrangement of the teeth on the ma,ndible 

 in this species is neither figured nor described. The alleged 

 absence of spines from the legs compels the conclusion that this 

 species is distinct from the following D. htbicola. In the sub- 

 joined table of species, having no other characters to lay hold of, 

 I have had no choice but to use this absence of spines in con- 

 trasting the two forms — an arrangement which unfortunately 

 suggests that the relationship between the two South African 

 species is less than that between one of the latter and the 

 Australian species D. kenyonce. On a priori grounds this is 

 hardly likely to be the case. 



7. Desis tubicola (Pocock). 



Paradesis tubicola Pocock, Bull. Liverpool Mus. i. pp. 76-77, 

 figs. 1-3 (1898). 



Lac. S. Afi'ica ; 'W3aiberg in Cape Colony (iV. Abraham). 



Mr. Nendick Abraham's account of the habits of this spider is 

 reprinted from the ' Bulletin of the Liverpool Museum.' After 

 describing his first discovery of the animal in the tube-masses of 

 Tubicola, the wiiter proceeds : — " This formation [the Tubicola- 

 masses] is invaiiably covered by the sea at high tide, and much 

 of it even at low tide .... Sometimes I have found five or six 

 spiders in one piece of mateiial weighing five or six pounds. 

 Now, what is curious is that these spiders cannot swim or dive, 

 and when placed on the su.rface of the water appear to be quite 

 helpless, or nearly so .... I eventually succeeded in securing 

 several nearly perfect examples [of their dwellings]. I then saw 

 that the spider does not, as a rule, make its home in the empty 



tubes of the worms, but in the spaces left between the 



tubes." The dwelling consists of a delicate silken chamber with 

 the opening seaward. " It is so frail and delicate that the least 

 rough handling " destroys it. " Yet in this frail home of silk, 

 hidden away in some little space in the mass of tubes built by 



marine worms, these spiders live and thrive, the waves 



breaking over them all day long I have watched the tubes 



when the tide was low in the hope of seeing a spider ci'awling oi- 

 running about, but I have never yet seen one. They live out of 



