322 
Psyche 
[December 
A taxonomic revision of the family Sicariidae has never been made. 
Such a study would be time consuming and difficult — the holotypes 
of the numerous names would have to be consulted in various South 
American museums. The species in our cultures are thus labelled 
no. i (from Tucuman Province, Argentina) and no. 2 (from Lima, 
Peru). Voucher specimens have been placed in the Museum of Com- 
parative Zoology. The life history observations recorded here come 
from culture no. i. 
FEEDING 
Sicarius is a powerful spider that feeds on passing insects, rapidly 
emerging from the sand when disturbed. The prey is not chewed 
but, like the prey of many spiders, apparently liquified inside its integu- 
ment and then sucked out. No use at all is made of silk in prey 
capture. Small prey (e.g. house flies, mealworms) are taken along 
when the spider digs itself into the sand, and are never left and picked 
up later. However^ a grasshopper i 1/2 times as long as Sicarius 
was bitten and left, to be attacked again shortly afterwards. When 
the prey was somewhat subdued the spider began feeding, changing 
the place of biting and turning the prey during the next five hours. 
The prey was then left during the evening, and the spider buried it- 
self; the next morning, the spider emerged and went straight to the 
grasshopper shell about 5 cm away, bit into it and fed for a while. 
Whether it fed during the night is not known. (It is doubtful that 
sicariid eyes produce a picture image.) 
MATING 
Of the contents of one egg case raised, four specimens matured : 
one female and three males. After two males matured in June 1967, 
they were “restless” and often were seen against the walls of their 
plastic container, rarely buried. On the 20th of July, 1967, one male 
was placed with a female, one with an immature male thought to 
be an adult female. They buried themselves after the disturbance. 
The male placed with the juvenile specimen showed no interest in it. 
The juvenile molted on 21 October 1967, and turned out to be a 
male. 
The other male, however, surfaced after about two hours and 
walked about. Suddenly he stopped and began to dig with the front 
legs, thus exposing the posterior end of the abdomen of the female, 
who was facing the opposite direction. After the female was dug out 
or in part emerged from the sand (at about 15:30), the male and 
female stood face to face, the fronts of their carapaces touching. The 
male gently felt the dorsal abdomen of the female with his long legs. 
