INSECT ODDITIES. 265 
this group alone provides for original investigation. The drier details of the 
morphological structure and technical nomenclature and affinities of the more 
commonly occurring species have to a considerable extent been already chronicled, 
notably through the labours of Dr. Ludwig Koch. There is, however, still a 
proponderating number of undescribed species, while of but few of those already 
known have any data been placed on record concerning their most interesting 
life-habits and idiosyncrasies, their individual peculiarities of snare construction, or 
special and often most singularly shaped receptacles woven for the protection or 
concealment of their eggs. Following out the lines adopted in Dr. H. C. McCook’s 
magnificent three-volume Monograph of the “Orb-weaving Spiders of the United 
States,” there is undoubtedly open to the talent and energies of an enthusiastic 
Australian arachnologist an opportunity of producing an equivalent if not an even 
more voluminous and fascinating treatise. 
The spider figured below from life belongs to the non-orb-weaving family of the 
Heteropodide ; a timber and house-frequenting species familiarly known to Australian 
settlers by the title of “Tarantula” or, to the less illiterate, as a “Triantelope.” 
W. Saville-Kent, Photo. 
WESTERN AUSTRALIAN TARANTULA. Jsopoda sp. NATURAL SIZE. 
LL 
