OCR Text |
Show 1896.] SPIDERS PROM T H E LOWER AMAZONS. 747 of legs, and pedipalps rich brown. Underside of legs clothed with sandy yellow-brown hairs. Inner margin of coxa of pedipalp and outer margin of fang-groove fringed with fiery-red hairs. Protarsi and tarsi i. aud ii. entirely, § of protarsus iii. and whole of tarsus, 5 of protarsus iv. and whole of tarsus, furnished with a dense pad of scopular hairs. Tarsi i., ii., iii., and iv. broad, spatuliform, but iv. much less so. Upperside of legs clothed with rich chocolate-brown hairs on femora, becoming more rufous along the four distal segments. Hair on legs short (not long,-as in Avicularia). Patellae of legs i. and ii. and pedipalp slashed with four narrow lines of short, pale, sandy-grey pubescence, central pair confluent towards apex of segment. Tibiae i. and ii. of pedipalp with two widely separate pairs of pale lines of pubescence; each pair very narrowly separate. Protarsi i. and ii. and of pedipalp with fine, short, central, pale basal line. Legs iii. and iv. exhibiting a somewhat similar but less conspicuous arrangement of pale lines. Femora of all four pairs with two faint dorsal and a pair of lateral yellow lines on the outer side, the latter obsolete on iv. Carapace longer than broad, narrow, in proportion of 20 : 16, distinctly gibbous behind eye-tumulus. Central fovea deep, transverse, slightly procurved. Eye-tumulus twice as long as broad. Anterior row of eyes only a little procurved. Fang-groove armed ' with a single row of short conical teeth along outer margin, its floor towards base studded with minute granules. Sternum with four pairs of sigilla visible: 1st at base of labial plate, 2nd marginal, 3rd submarginal, 4th remote from margin. Labium quadrate, a little longer than broad ; distal third entirely studded with minute cuspules. Coxa of pedipalp almost twice as long as broad; inner distal angle slightly produced, obtusely conical; inner basal angle studded with minute cuspules ; inner basal disc with a few more scattered cuspules. Legs of fourth pair shorter than those of first pair. Patella and tibia i. equal to length of carapace. Tibia and patella iv. shorter than carapace. Tarsus of pedipalp with one, of legs i., ii., iii., and iv. with two small stout hooked claws, their inner central edge armed with five minute denticles. Spinning-mamillce four; posterior pair trisegmental, second segment shortest; the whole three segments taken together not longer than width of sternum. The habits of Santaremia pococki are well known and have been for years. So long ago as 1879, M r . Bates mentions the large spiders found near Para, forming long silk-lined tubes in the sandy soil near Nazareth. I was unable to secure any specimens from Para myself, but met with abundance at Santarem and at several other places on the river, Monte Alegre. At Santarem, their burrows, eighteen inches long, were most numerous along the banks of the waggon-track running across the sandy campos to the forest. Here at any time of day, though more especially at night, the females might be seen sitting at the entrance of the tube, which was trumpet-shaped and usually over- |