in having four lim<*s instead cf two (all 
the trapdoor spiders have four, but they 
are not. included in the true sp’ders 
— arasene verae). The Hypoehillds live 
in the entrance to eaves, and tlrs is 
where we found them at Mole Creek. 
We went there especially to find them, 
and as soon as the guide opened the 
door of Baldock’s Cave I saw a large 
hackled web, and knew the hypochilid 
was there, and true enough it was an 
immense creature, all legs, resting at 
the further end of the we >. 
Soon we had half a dozen in sepa¬ 
rate boxes, four females and two males, 
to be taken back alive to the mainland 
for breeding and study. 
Ihe Ectatostica (Hypoehilidae), de¬ 
scribed by Petterd years ago in the pro¬ 
ceedings of the Royal Society of Tas¬ 
mania. is in expanse of legs Tasmania’s 
largest spider. The body, black and glo¬ 
bose, lias the two pairs of bright yel¬ 
low spots on the ventral surface of the 
abdomen. The presence of four yellow 
spots instead of two !s its great dis¬ 
tinction. We may look on this spider 
ns ranking with the mountain shrimp, 
the platypus and echidna, in belonging 
to an unbelievable antiquity, and it has 
probably lived in the cave entrances 
since the dawn of time. The type spe¬ 
cimens described by Petterd and frig- 
inns years ago are in the Tasmanian 
Museum at ffobart. 
THE CHEFS. 
1 7 
