ON ARACHNIDA. 457 



extremely dreaded in Antilles, and in South America, where 

 they are called cra^-spiders. 



The habits of all these mygales are probably the same, and 

 we shall therefore present here what authors have collected 

 on the subject, though as far as actual observation is concerned, 

 they principally apply to the species called avicularia. 



That which Pison, in his Natural history of Brazil, names 

 nhamdu, or 7iliamdu-guagu (great spider) is a species very 

 much akin to avicularia. According to him, it nidificates, 

 after the manner of birds, in the rubbish and cavities of old 

 and decaying trees. It lives a very long time, and can sup- 

 port an extreme degree of abstinence. Some individuals, 

 w^hich the author had shut up in boxes, have lived there some 

 months without any sort of nourishment. This species con- 

 structs, though but seldom, with the two projecting spinnerets, 

 which it carries at the anus, webs, similar, as he says, in dis- 

 position to those made by the other spiders. But the gene- 

 rality of this assertion, and the description which this author 

 gives of the webs of these mygales, would seem to prove, that 

 he does not speak ex visu, but abandons himself to argument 

 and conjecture. Such, again, is the case when on the subject 

 of the coupling of these animals, he advances that their bodies 

 are opposed one to the other faversis clunibusj. The females 

 carry their eggs under the belly. The talons of their mandi- 

 bles are enchased in gold, to serve as tooth-picks, and are 

 even supposed to be an excellent odontalgic. Not only the 

 pricking of these animals, but the liquor which is distilled 

 from their mouths, and even, it is reported, their hairs, are 

 reputed venomous. The part of the body which the animal 

 has wounded, grows benumbed, livid, and blackish, swells 

 considerably, and the malady proceeds, according to Pison, 

 to such an extent as to prove incurable. The wound is 

 cauterized ; but the best antidote, as the same author tells us, 

 is furnished by that preparation of the crab, which he names 



