56 



Zealand bird is also clearly referable. The generic title adopted by Mr. Gould 

 [Phalacrocorax of Brisson) appears to me more satisfactory than Graculus, 

 about which there seems to be no finality. In Mr. G. E,. Gray's first list 

 {A2)2y. to Dieff, N.Z., Yol. ii., p. 201) it was written Graucalus, and in his 

 Zoology of the Erebus and Terror, Birds, p. 20, it was changed to Gracalus, 

 and in his latest list {Ibis, 1862) it became Graculus, a term originally applied 

 specifically by Linnaeus to the green cormorant of Europe, Pelecanus graculus 

 {Syst. NaL, Vol. L, p. 217). 



N'oTE to Art. II. — Buller's List of IS"ew Zealand Lizards. 



Add, — 12 b. Naultinus lineattis, sp. n., Gray. Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 

 1869, Vol. iii., p. 243. 



Art. X. — On Latrodectus {Katijjo), the Poisonous Sinder of New Zealand. 

 By Ll. Powell, M. E.G. S.St. A. 



(With Illustrations.) 



[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, May 4, 1870.] 



A COMMUNICATION was read before the Auckland Institute in October last, by 

 F. W. Wiight, Esq., L.M.P., on a case which came under his observation of 

 the ill effects produced by the venomous bite of a spider, known to the natives 

 under the name of the Katipo ; he also related two or three cases recorded by 

 other observers. Both in the local efiect and the extreme prostration of vital 

 power, there was great similarity to the injuries inflicted by venomous snakes, 

 and in one case death is said to have followed after a considerable interval. 

 The injurious effects of the bite are well known to the natives, and, according 

 to Mr. Wright, they describe two kinds of Katipo, one black, the other black 

 with red markings ; the noxious properties of the former seem doubtful, but 

 all agree that the red-spotted spider is highly poisonous. 



Dr. Hochstetter says,- — " As we were about to camp for dinner, we were 

 cautioned by the natives against a small black spider with a stripe on its back, 

 which they call Katipo. Thesj)ider is said to exist only here and about Otaki, 

 on Cook's Strait, on the grass growing upon the sand-hills, and its bite to be 

 so poisonous, that with sickly persons it has even caused speedy death. * * 

 Balph, in the Journ. Proc. Lin. Sac, describes it as a real spider, of a very 

 different appearance at different periods of its age ; when full-grown it is 

 black, with an orange-red stripe on its back. Ealph mentions also that he had 

 put the spider together Avith a mouse, and that the latter died after eighteen 



