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Show 1896.] SPIDERS FROM THE LOWER AMAZONS. 717 of the group Trlclarilnce vie with the essentially semi-aquatic Dohmedes in displaying their skill in running upon and diving beneath the surface, out of sight and out of reach of enemies in pursuit. Throughout the three first-mentioned regions there are, of course, certain Spider forms found sprinkled equally over each- as, for instance, the ubiquitous Avicularla, the ilAranha caran-juejlra," the crab-spider par excellence of the native Brazilian. But there are also many special forms, each of them peculiar to their special district. Here one finds, too, 4000 miles on the other side of the globe, beneath an equatorial sun, forms strangely familiar to the English naturalist in districts of similar physical character at home. The sandy campos, for instance, furnish us with a Lgcosa, in colour adapted to its environment, and curiously similar to the Lgcosa picta of our English sand-dunes. In the forest, Epeirids, Therididse, and Salticids swarm, of every shape and hue. Thomisids, too, the majority very similar to European species in general character, to which the pure white waxen Erlpus, lurking in some snow-white blossom, is a notable exception. One must not, however, have the impression that the Spider-fauna of tropical America is much the same as that of England. W e have nothing, for instance, to compare with the curious Gastracanthids, the crimson-spined Mlcrathena schrelbersl, or the numerous species of the thorny-backed genus Gastracantha. We have nothing to mateh the huge Nephlla with her diminutive husband, or the lovely Argiope argentata stretched on the white silken cross in the centre of its orbicular snare. Except an Atypus or two, we have nothing to take the place of the 250 species and upwards of the Mygalomorphce which are found in Southern and Central America. So that, although many a familiar form will meet the eye of the English arachnologist on the Amazons, yet there are countless forms differing in size, in structure, and in colour from anything that he can find amongst the Spider-fauna of Northern Europe. One must confess, too, that at the present time arachnologists still know next to nothing of the Spiders of Brazil. Nor do I speak only of differences specific, a more extended knowledge of which merely multiplies the known species ten or a hundredfold: nor only of a knowledge which enables us with certainty to pair this female with that male which, according to the laws of Nature, rightfully belongs to her-a matter of no little difficulty even to specialists. I refer rather to our knowledge of almost everything which has to do with their habits and domestic economy. We must confess, for instance, that we do not yet know the staple diet of so common and so well-known a Spider as the huge Avicularia. Though I was out night after night, and though I watched, on several occasions the whole night through, the tunnels of twenty and upwards of the sand-burrowing " Mggale" |
