•216 DE. N. ANN" AND ALE ON 



XLVIII. PCECILOTHERIA STRIATA, Pock. 



This magnificent spider is apparently not uncommon on Acacia arabica near Pamben. 

 It is probably confined to Southern India, the provenance of the type being, according to 

 Pocock, doubtful. 



XLIX. Artema Atlanta (Walck.). 



This species frequently spins in the dark corners of houses, but it is very abundant 

 among the stunted thorns on the sea-shore at Pamben, their matted branches forming 

 a very suitable support for the loose and irregular web. 



L. Heteropoda venatoria (Linn.). 



The common house-spider at Ramanad, as in most parts of India and in many 

 tropical countries. Pocock, however, records a second species, H. faurei, from the same 

 locality. 



LI. Trombidium grandissimum (Koch). 



T. grandissimum, Hill in Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, 1905, p. 74. 



Very little seems to be known as regards the habits and distribution of this handsome 

 scarlet Mite. It appears to occur in all parts of India where the soil is sandy, in Burma, 

 and possibly in the Himalayas ; but I have not seen specimens from the Hills. 



In the drier regions it spends a considerable part of the year buried in the sand, 

 but when the rains commence, it leaves this retreat immediately and lives for a short time 

 on the surface. Numerous specimens appeared during my visit to Ramanad, crawling 

 on the sand the day after a shower of rain. They did not mount upon herbs or shrubs. 

 No more rain followed, and by the third day they had disappeared again. Some speci- 

 mens were lately sent to me from Pamben, rolled in paper with a little sand and packed 

 with some preserved specimens in a tin-box. They were nearly a week on the way 

 and arrived in a torpid and shrivelled condition. I placed them in an insect cage with 

 some damp grass, and they gradually began to move about. Shortly afterwards they each 

 excreted a white liquid, which soon became solid and took on a chalky consistency. 

 By the next day the majority of them had considerably increased in bulk, and those 

 which had not done so, quickly died. I could not discover, however, that they had 

 eaten anything, and they refused to take any notice of either succulent leaves, soft- 

 bodied insects (such as caterpillars, small Homoptera, etc.) and earthworms placed in 

 their way. At night they remained still and hid themselves under the grass, but 

 during the day-time they became very active, showing an extraordinary facility in 

 finding any opening in their cage and attempting to crawl through it. 



As many of them died and I was unable to discover how to keep them alive, I 

 placed the survivors in a glass bowl with damp sand at the bottom. They immediately 

 began to burrow, and, as the sand was permitted to dry, many of them sank again into 

 a torpid condition, in which they have remained for some weeks. The rest soon died. 

 The way in which they burrowed was peculiar. They first removed a certain number of 

 sand -grains very deliberately by means of the first pair of legs, which they used very 



