Eriodes, Is. Geoffr., Dict. Class., xv., p. 143 (1829).
The members of this genus resemble in general form the Spider-Monkeys, to be presently described, and they present also many resemblances to the foregoing species of the Woolly Monkeys. Their limbs are long and slender, and their body heavy, and covered with a woolly under-fur. Their head is rounder than in the Capuchins. The face is flat, and the facial angle large. The nose has the partition between the nostrils narrower than in the other species of the family, and the nostrils are themselves more approximated, circular in form, and directed more downward than outward, thus showing some approach to the position of the nostrils in the Old World Apes. Their fore-limbs are long and slender, and the thumb is often entirely absent (as in the Guerezas of Africa), or there may be a very rudimentary digit, which sometimes ends in a small nail. The nails of the digits are, as in Lagothrix, very compressed and sharp. The tail is longer than the body, naked on the under side, and sensitive at its termination, and therefore prehensile.
The skull is globular, and the pre-maxillary bones articulate with the nasal bones by a broad surface. The incisor teeth are equal in size; the canines are small, and of the same length as the incisors, and the molars, which are vertically higher than the canines, are thick and quadrangular. The lower jaw is dilated behind, somewhat less than in Lagothrix.
The Woolly Spider-Monkeys are very rare, and little is known of their habits. They are confined to the south-eastern coast forests of Brazil, that region to the south of Cape San Roque, whence, as far as Rio Grande do Sul, ever-verdant forests, as Mr. Wallace has described, clothe all the valleys and hills of the lowland region, stretching as far west as the higher mountain ranges parallel to the coast, and even up the valleys of the larger rivers a long way into the interior of the country.
THE BROWN WOOLLY SPIDER-MONKEY. BRACHYTELES ARACHNOIDES.
Ateles arachnoides, Geoffr., Ann. Mus., vii., p. 271 (1806); xiii., p. 90, pl. 9 (1809); xix., p. 106 (1812); Schl., Mus. Pays Bas, vii., p. 184 (1876, part.).
Ateles hypoxanthus, Desm., Mamm., p. 75 (1820); Neuwied, apud Kuhl, Beitr. Zool., p. 25 (1820); Schl., t. c. p. 185 (1876, part.).
Brachyteles macrotarsus, Spix, Sim. et Vespert., Bras., p. 36, pl. 17 (1823).
Eriodes hemidactylus and E. tuberifer, Geoffr., Mém. Mus., xvii., pp. 161, 163 (1828).
Eriodes arachnoides, Geoffr., Mém. Mus., t. c. p. 160 (1828).