Colenso. — On some newly -discovered New Zealand Arachnids. 173 



This fine spider is by no means uncommon with me ; its habitat is often 

 inside an unused and empty inverted earthen flower-pot ; if such has been 

 standing in the garden untouched for a year or so, one is pretty certain to 

 be found within it, quietly and snugly ensconced in the midst, or beneath a 

 very large web, spun thickly across the pot in all directions, yet leaving a 

 large and somewhat tortuous passage for the spider ; the web itself is of a 

 bluish cast. In the pot are also sure to be found the elytra of pretty large 

 Coleopterous insects, which, no doubt, enter through the hole in the in- 

 verted bottom of the flower-pot. Another fine resort for these spiders is 

 under the large wooden cover of my concrete underground water-tank ; this 

 cover is scarcely ever removed oftener than once in two years, and there, 

 beneath it, they are to be found, sometimes three or five, but always dwell- 

 ing apart, in darkness, and concealed in their large extensive bluish webs. 

 This spider also feigns death on its being captured. I have only hitherto 

 detected one male, which, as the Eev. 0. P. Cambridge states (and as is 

 generally the case), is smaller than the female. 



In one of those specimens of this spider now exhibited (all being females) 

 you will notice that it had formerly lost a leg, which is being supplied by a 

 new (and, at present, a smaller) one. Some of the female specimens of this 

 spider that I have taken, are considerably larger than those described by the 

 Eev. 0. P. Cambridge ; in all other respects, however, they agree Avith his 

 scientific description. 



Addendum. 



A few days after the reading of my paper on some New Zealand Arach- 

 nids (the same having been noticed in one of our local papers), I received by 

 train a small tin box from a friend in the country, 60 miles distant south, 

 "containing," as he said, "two fine living specimens of my big spider" 

 (Macrothele huttonil). On opening the box there was but one of them alive, 

 the other not only being dead but completely dismembered ! — every leg torn 

 off at the coxal joint, and the cephalothorax separated from the abdomen. 

 These two spiders were both females, and were of a very large size ; the 

 living one was the largest specimen I had ever seen, and was wholly 

 uninjured and very lively. There was nothing put into the little tin box 

 with them, neither moss nor paper. That they would fight and kill, cooped 

 up as they were in such a narrow space, was certain, but that the victor 

 should proceed to such extreme lengths as to tear the conquered one into 

 pieces was new, at least to me. And as this incident seemed an addition to 

 our knowledge of the animal's habits and economy, I have added it. 



