862 Captain Thos. Hutton on Galeodes (Vorax.J [No. 129. 



spring from the thorax, and are six in number. The head is armed 

 with two strong and formidable chelae, or double jaws, answering to 

 the long cheliform fore-arms of the scorpion ; these jaws are denticu- 

 late, and the ends are curved, sharp pointed, and extremely hard and 

 horny, of a dark brown colour. Eyes two, and placed on the top of 

 the head between the base of the jaws ; the colour generally is sandy 

 brown, and the body soft and clothed with short mouse-coloured hairs ; 

 the limbs, and especially the palpi, are furnished with long coarse 

 hairs; beneath these are ten obtriangular plates springing from the 

 under side of the thigh or coxae of the posterior legs, five on each, the 

 inner one being smallest, the outer one largest ; these are of an ob- 

 triangular form, and their use appears to be still unknown. I never 

 saw them used to assist progression in any way. 



The true legs are furnished at the end with strong hooks or claws, 

 but the two pairs of pedi-palpi are destitute of them, the anterior pair 

 being the largest and strongest, and furnished at the end with a white 

 retractile sucker; this in a state of rest is withdrawn into the last 

 joint of the palpi, and it appears to be used to assist in climbing up 

 surfaces, or in hanging against gravity, in the same way that flies and 

 lizards use their feet, by the exclusion of air. In seizing its prey, 

 one pair of jaws keeps hold, while the other is advanced to cut, and 

 they thus alternately advance and hold till the victim is sawed in two ; 

 the only sound they emit is a hissing or rustling, caused by the fricti- 

 on of the two pairs of chelae, as they are advanced and withdrawn ; 

 this is only heard when the spider is suddenly disturbed or irritated. 



From the tenor of Mr. W. S. Macleay's remarks upon Mygale and 

 the large species of Epeira, which he has discovered in the vicinity of 

 Sydney, it would appear, that although these spiders may occasionally 

 feed upon the juices of warm-blooded animals, which accident may 

 throw in their way, yet that their natural food consists of insects, and 

 the fact of their killing birds at all, must be regarded as a very rare 

 exception to the general rule of their habits ; and from the above re- 

 marks on Galeodes, it will be seen that the habits of this spider in 

 some measure corroborate Mr. Macleay's opinion, for although strictly 

 speaking, the proper food of Galeodes consists of insects, yet when 

 accident throws a lizard in its way, it will not fail to seize and devour 

 it. With regard however to its preying at all upon warm-blooded ani- 



