Cydrela is an African genus of moderate sized spiders, containing five species of very curious habits. They scramble about and burrow in the sand, in which, according to Simon,[[314]] they appear to swim, and their chief burrowing implements are their pedipalpi, which are specially modified, the tarsi in the female bristling with spines, and being armed with one or more terminal claws.
Laches (Lachesis) includes some larger pale-coloured spiders found in Egypt and Syria, under stones in very hot and dry localities.
Fig. [206].—Hermippus loricatus, ♂ × 2½. (After Simon.)
Storena has representatives in all the tropical and sub-tropical parts of the world, and numbers about fifty species. They are of moderate size, with integuments smooth and glossy or finely shagreened, usually dark-coloured, with white or yellow spots on the abdomen. Hermippus (Fig. [206]) is also African. Zodarion (Enyo) includes about thirty-five species of rather small, generally unicolorous spiders, very active and fond of the sunshine. They spin no web, but have a retreat under a stone. Their chief prey appear to be ants. Most of the species are native to the Mediterranean region, the others belonging to Central and Southern Asia.
Simon includes in this family the remarkable genus Cryptothele, found in Ceylon, Malacca, New Guinea, and various Oceanic islands. They are moderate sized brownish spiders, with hard integuments rugged with tubercles and projections. Their most curious characteristic is their power of retracting their spinnerets within a sort of sheath, so that they become entirely invisible.
Fig. [207].—Hersilia caudata, ♀. (After Pickard-Cambridge.)
Fam. 20. Hersiliidae.—This is a very distinct family of spiders, with broad cephalothorax, with well-marked fovea and striae, and small, well defined caput. The eyes, usually eight, are black except the median anterior pair. The legs are long and thin, and the tarsi three-clawed. The abdomen is oval or sub-globular, short haired, and generally of greyish coloration. The spinnerets supply the chief characteristic, the posterior pair being long—often excessively long—and two-jointed, the terminal joint tapering and flexible. The colulus is large. They are very active spiders, living on tree trunks or walls, or under stones, but spreading no snare. Some of them are of considerable size.
Hersilia includes nine species native to Africa and Asia. Tama is the only genus represented in the New World, two of its species being found in South America, while others inhabit Africa, Asia, and Australia. Another genus, Hersiliola, is principally African, but extends into Spain.