222 
Annals of the Transvaal Museum. 
Family CTENIZIDAE. 
Acanthodon transvaalensis (Hewitt). 
Localities : Rietfontein (Pretoria), Mayville, Skinner’s Court, near Lyttelton 
Junction, Rietfontein (20 miles north-west of Pretoria), Schoemans- 
rust, Roodeplaat, and Zeekoegat. Also Middelb urg, Pan Station, 
Wonderfontein Station, in Middelburg District, and Steynsdorp, 
Carolina District. 
Nests of this species were found situated on bare ground, under tufts 
of grass, or even in banks of old roadsides. The lids are almost circular, 
smaller than those of Stasimopus robertsi, very thin, of the “wafer” type, 
broadly hinged at the back (disguised above to assimilate with the 
surroundings), and with 3-8 minute tooth or claw marks concentrated 
nearer the hinge .than the centre ; it usually lies slightly above the level 
of the surrounding surface of the ground. The tube below the lid is usually 
not quite vertical, but does not slant so conspicuously as in Idiops pretoriae, 
and is broader at the bottom. At Lyttelton Junction, in March, a female 
with young was taken in a nest of Galeosoma pilosum ! 
Note. — Five nests taken at Middelburg were situated on hard bare 
ground, the lids fitting neatly into the entrance and level with the ground. 
Another nest taken at Middelburg and the one taken near Pan Station 
differed only in being situated on ledges on the bank of old roads. All 
these nests, with the exception of that from Pan, were peculiar in slanting 
backward for an inch, then dropping vertically for two inches, and for the 
remaining two inches doubling back again and downwards to a point almost 
below the entrance, so that the tube described a curve with the points 
vertically opposite one another. The one from Pan was like typical ones 
from the neighbourhood of Pretoria. 
The following measurements are from a typical nest found at 
Mayville : — 
Depth of tube 125 mm. 
Width at the entrance (inside edge at 
the rim) 16 x 13 mm. 
Width at the bottom of the tube...... 18J mm. 
Breadth of lid 16-65 mm. 
Length of lid (front to back) 13-5 mm. 
Thickness of lid. . If mm. 
Breadth of hinge. 16 mm. 
Acanthodon Monticola Hewitt. 
Locality : Little Wonderboom, Magaliesberg. 
Nests of this species are numerous in moss-covered banks, under small 
stones on the Magaliesberg. The lids are covered with bits of moss and 
earth, so as exactly to assimilate with the surroundings ; they are circular, 
fitting into the entrance, but very thin, and the edge slightly overlapping 
the rim of the tube ; the tooth or claw marks are very minute, situated 
in the centre, where a slight bulge is produced. The nests are shallow as 
a rule, owing to the shallowness of the soil where they are situated, and 
