Colenso. — On some newly -discovered New Zealand Arachnids. 169 



The spot seems to have been a remarkably soft one, of a loose spongy 

 muddy nature ; for early in the following month (August) he thus writes :— 

 " I found these four spiders, now sent, from one to two feet under ground ; 

 but what was black swampy soil last month, is now mud since the heavy 

 rains. This mud seems to boil up through cracks in the upper stratum of 

 clay. I put a bar of iron down sixteen feet, and found soft mud only, and 

 no bottom." 



On the 19 th of August he again writes : "In further carrying out your 

 wishes I have again been a-spider-hunting, and I give you the result. I 

 found a round hole f -in. in diameter in the elevated side of the drain. In 

 carefully cutting into it I first came upon thousands of ants ! I never 

 before found so many in one spot. This hole ran nearly horizontally, and 

 was about 6 in. in depth ; it was lined throughout with spiders' web, and 

 its bottom was also covered with web ; two spiders of small size were in the 

 bottom of this hole. I also found two wings of an insect with the spiders 

 at the bottom; these I also send you with them. The clay, etc., on the 

 outside of the entrance to the hole was excavated from within and thrown 

 down. Another similar hole had a blue-gum leaf fastened down with web 

 across its entrance, but there was nothing in it. Another hole, which ran 

 8-9 inches vertically, had a big spider reposing in the bottom. I could not 

 find any more large spiders, but there are plenty of small ones left. None 

 feigned death on being captured; on the contiary they always ran nimbly 

 away, endeavouring to hide themselves by getting under anything. They 

 run very. quickly with their legs spread out all round. One of the largest 

 (of those I first sent you) when dug out fell from off the shovel into the 

 drain, and immediately dived under the liquid mud ! I plunged the shovel 

 in after it and brought up a shovel-full of mud, and the spider was among 

 it, looking as clean and dry as if it had never been in it, which quite sur- 

 prised me. Their colours, I find, are much darker after being immersed in 

 the spirits ; the yellow stripes are not near so bright as when they were 

 living, and their velvety appearance wholly gone." 



Since receiving the foregoing communications, I have had at various 

 times down to the present, several letters from Mr. Drummond, but 

 nothing additional of consequence has been discovered. I much wished to 

 obtain a specimen of a male ; for, although I have received several specimens, 

 both large and small, they are all females ; and I regret to say that I have 

 not yet succeeded. This, however, is no uncommon occurrence among the 

 Araneid(c, as it is well known that the males are everywhere fewer in num- 

 ber than the females and consequently much more rarely met with ; besides, 

 I believe it is pretty well ascertained, that among the Territelaria, or trap- 

 door spiders, the male is never found within those holes or tubes. And as 



