22 Inaugural Address by the President. 



would have been in danger of starvation since the anterior 

 extremities of the falces, with their fangs and teeth, are the 

 main instruments for holding and compressing the spider's 

 prey, the juices of which flow thence into the mouth itself. 

 Another of these curious spiders came from Landana on the 

 river Congo on the west coast of Africa and has been described 

 by M. Eugene Simon and he has named it Landana Petiti dXttr 

 the discoverer M. L. Petit. 



M. Simon has not only described a third living species under 

 the name of Mecysmauchenius segmentatus but also another 

 fossil species, Archaea pougnetiio\indi embedded in amber from 

 the shores of the Baltic. 



M. Simon in his splendid work on spiders, just being issued, 

 says, that he can see no difference between Archaea and 

 Eriauchenius^ and therefore does away with the latter genus. 

 He also says of these spiders, " The geographical distribution of 

 the Archaeidae is not less curious than the details of their 

 strange structure. Although during the Tertiary epoch the 

 genus Archaea inhabited the North of Europe, the genera 

 actually living, which we must suppose to be its descendants, are 

 relegated to the most southern parts of the Old and New 

 world. The genus Archaea is found in Madagascar, the genus 

 Landana in the Congo districts, while the genus Mecysmau- 

 chenius comes from Cape Horn. The first two genera Simon 

 considers to be allied to the Argiopae, of which our common or 

 garden spider Araneus diadematus belongs. L,andana he has 

 placed in the Thcrididae. It would be of great importance to 

 know what sort of webs they make. 



The L.ung-fishes, living representatives of the Dipnoi^ an order 

 ot fish that goes back to the Devonian period, has also a similar 

 distiibution, represented by the Protopterus in Africa, the 

 Lepidosiren in South America, and the Ceratodus in only one 

 or two rivers in Queensland. 



In the skunk [Mephitis sufficans) we have a curious instance 

 of a mammal protected by warning colours, and a disagreeable 

 smell. The skunk goes about freely with its white tail erect 

 as a danger signal, fearing neither man or beast. 



