142 
ZOOLOGY. 
abundant on the rocky coast, and aftords to the traveller ample 
means of subsistence. I did not meet with the rock oyster. 
In both lakes the Unio is abundant, and is very much coveted 
by the native for food. Beside it, adhering to the rock and to the 
water plants, I found species of the genera Physa, Anateira, Corni- 
forma, and Amnicola ciliata, all well known species, besides a new 
one, in Roto-roa, belonging to the genus Lymnea. 
Of land shells no large Helicidse came within my observation, 
but I collected some very fine though small specimens .on mosses 
in the Grey plains, and another and large one on the leaves of the 
kiekie, near the sea, which I think are also undescribed. 
Amongst the Crustacea nothing was observed by me which I 
had reason to think had not already been described, but the class 
Arachnida is one which ought some time to be carefully studied by 
a naturalist, because I am certain that it would be difficult to find 
any country in which such a variety of spiders occur as are to be 
observed in New Zealand. There scarcely passed a single day 
when I did not see new forms — red, green, brown, yellow, and 
black spiders; in fact, hardly a shade was unrepresented, black 
with red spots, red with black spots, &c., striped and mottled, 
belonging to many genera, and of all possible forms and sizes; 
some of them which I observed of so remarkable m shape, that I 
think it not improper to speak more fully of them. 
On the huge rocks lying on the margin of lloto-iti and Roto-roa 
I observed a spider, belonging probably to the saltigrades, four 
lines long from the end of the abdomen to the beginning of the 
mandibles, greyish brown, the cephalo-thorax darker and mot¬ 
tled, running or leaping over the rocks with great rapidity in 
search of insects. The mandibles, instead of having the usual 
length, are nearly seven lines long, of a horny substance, folded 
inside, returning thus towards the mascillae, probably destined to 
catch their prey and bring it to the mouth. These mandibles 
stand nearly upright. After leaving the lakes I never saw this 
species 'again. 
I found another very interesting spider amongst the boulders 
in the Tutaki, shortly after sunset. In the first instance, I 
thought it was a river crayfish, from its size, the animal being 
nearly two inches long, but on closer examination I found that I 
had been mistaken. I had no idea that such an enormous spider 
existed in New Zealand, and 1 called Mr. J. Mackay, then with 
me, and who had gone over the river to collect firewood, to hasten 
back. He also was quite astonished, and he told me that not 
only had he never seen it during his manifold explorations through 
the country, but even that he had never heard of it from the 
natives. Not one of my insect glasses was wide enough to con¬ 
tain it, and 1 was therefore obliged to let it crawl lazily away. 
The antennae were large, slightly curved at the end ; the cephalo- 
thorax small, and attached to the abdomen by a thin peduncle. 
