PULMONARIA. 45? 



of which, in a state of repose, occupy a circular space of six or seven inches in diameter, and [are asserted] to 

 seize Humming-birds. They form their nests in the slits of trees, beneath the bark, in the cavities of stones and 

 rockS; or on the surface of leaves of various vegetables. The cell of the M. avicularia is in the shape of.a tube, nar- 

 rowed into a point at its posterior extremity. It is composed of a white web of very fine texture, semitransparent, 

 like musHn. M. Gouilot gave me a nest which was about seven or eight inches long, and about two inches broad. 

 The cocoon of this si»ecies had the size and shape of a large nut. Its envelope, formed of the same materials as 

 the nest, consists of three layers. It appears that the young aro there hatched, and undergo their first moultiiig. 

 This naturalist informs me that he has obtained as many as a hundred young ones from one cocoon. (See my 

 memoir on the habits of the Mi/ga/e avicularia, Lin., in those of the Mn.v. d'H/sf. Naf., torn. vii. p. 450.) The 

 body of this species is about an inch and a half long, black, and very hairy, with tlie t][>^ of the palpi, k-gs, &c., 

 reddish. 



South America and the Antilles also furnish other species, which are known to the French colonists under the 

 name of Spider-Crabs, and of which the bite is reputed very dangerous. Tliere is also a large East Indian species 

 (M. fasciata, Seba) ; and a species is brought from the Cape of Good Hope, nearly as large as M. avicularia. 

 Another species (M. valentina) has been discovered in the arid deserts of Moxenta, in Spain, by iNI. Dufour ; and 

 another, from the same country, has been described by AValckenaer (M. cnlpciana). These two species form a 

 particular group, having the ungues exposed. (See further our articles on this and the allied genera in the Nouv. 

 Diction. iPIIist. Nat., second edition.) 



The other species of Mygale (forming the genus, Cteniza, Latr., m Fam. Nat.) have a transverse row of move- 

 able corneous spines at the superior extremity of the basal joint of the chelicera. The tarsi are less hairy beneath 

 than in the preceding, and their ungues are always exposed. They construct, in dry shelving situations exposed 

 to the sun, in the southern parts of Europe, &c., subterranean cylindrical galleries, often two feet deep, and so 

 tortuous that the traces of them are often lost. They moreover construct, at the entrance, a moveable lid formed 

 of silk and earth, fixed by a hinge, and which, by its precise size, inclination, and weight, closely shuts the open- 

 ing, scarcely so as to permit the place of the nest to be distinguished from the neighbouring soil. The inner surface 

 of the lid is lined with silk, which enables the animal to hold it down, and prevent its being pulled open. AVhen 

 taken by violence fi'om its nest, the Mygale is stupid, and ofl'ers no resistance. A silken tube, forming the nest, 

 lines the interior of the gallery. M. Dufour is of opinion that the males do not make these burrows, being gene- 

 rally found under stones, and appearing less favoured with organs fitted for those works. We presume, with 

 M. Dufctur, that our M. carminans is only the male of M. ccementaria, Latr., although M. "Walckenaer is of a dif- 

 ferent opinion. The latter species, described by Sauvages under the name of the Mason-Spider {Hisi. de VAcad. 

 rfe5.S'(?ic/(c.,1758), andby Dorthes under that of the Mining-Spider (Z-//?n. Tra)is,. voLii. 17, IS), is about two-thirds 

 of an inch long, and is found in the southern departments of France, Spain, &c. Another species (il/. fodie/iSy 

 Walck., M. .Sauvagesii., Duf., Rossi), is rather larger than the preceding, and 

 ^x^ y^ ?% ''/^ inhabits Tuscany and Corsica. The Museum d'Histoire Naturelle possesses 



'''" ' "" '' ' a block of earth in which four of its nests are arranged in a regular square. 



[M. A"". Audouin has published a long account of these nests in the Annules de 

 la Societc Entomologique de France.'] M. Lefebvre has also brought another 

 distinct species from Sicily, and another is found in Jamaica, (il/. nidular.f;), 

 which, together with its nest, has been figured by Brown in his Natural 

 History of that island, pi. 44, f. 3. 



[It is to I^Iadame Merian that we owe the origin of the story that tlie large 

 American Mygale attacks and kills sniail bu'ds ; this lady, in her splendid 

 work on the insects of Surinam, not only asserting this, but figuring the 

 Spider in the act of feeding on a Humming-bird which it had dragged oft" its 

 nest. Hence originated the idea that the Mygale spun the webs which are 

 met with in tropical climates, of sufficient force to hold small birds, but 

 which are the production of a species of Epeira. Mr. MacLeay, in the 

 ''"'■""■ '^'"■'' ""'-"^- ^j.g^ volume of the Transactions of the Zoological Socitiy, has attacked 



this lady's -writings with great violence, giving her credit for all that subsequent compilers chose to add 

 to her account. She, how'ever, did not assert that the Mygale forms these webs, nor is such the case, 

 for that spider lives in holes under ground, and in all its movements keeps dost to the earth, its food 

 consiting of luli, subterranean Crickets, and Cockroaches. On a living Humming-bird being placed into its 

 hole by Mr. MacLeay, the Spider even quitted it ; whence he disbelieves the existence of any bird-catching Spider ; 

 but M. Moreau de Jonnes expressly mentions that it climbs the branches of trees to devour the young of Humming- 

 birds, &c. Latreille published an elaborate memoir upon this genus in the Nouvelles Annalcs du Museum, vol. i., 

 and more recently M. AValckenaer has described thirty-six species of this genus in his Uidolre Nafuretlc dcs 

 Jnsectes Apteres. 



The M. nidulans, which is sufficiently abundant in the "West Indian islands,bas been figured, together with its nest, 

 by Mr. Kirby in his Bridgewater Treatise. It is also figured in Griffith's translation of the Rcgne Animal, but 

 re'^arded as an andescribed species, named N. nitida. I\Ir. Sells has communicated some curious observations on 

 it and its nest to the Entomological Society of London.] 



Those species (of T//t'm7;/;o^e.'-') which have the palpi inserted on an inferior dilatation on the outside of the 

 maxilUe, andS-jointed; the tongue very small in Atjims, but wdiich becomes longer and advanced between the 

 maxilh-c in the following genera, which is its general character: the last joint of the palpi in both sexes long and 



