OCR Text |
Show 388 REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE ON NEW DRASSIDES. [Jime 2, a number of specimens of various genera collected on the continent of Europe in different localities, and given me by the late Mr. Richard Beck, of 31 Cornhill, London. DRASSUS ORNATUS, sp. n. Immature female, length rather more than 2 lines. The only example met with of this species being immature, I should not have ventured to describe it as new had it not been for the very distinctive pattern upon the cephalothorax and abdomen; that on the abdomen especially will serve to distinguish it from every other species known to me. In form and structure this Spider is of the common type of Drassus; the cephalothorax is reddish yellow, margined narrowly with black, and with a broad longitudinal blackish-brown band on either side touching the black margins. The rest of the fore part (except the legs) is similar in colour to the cephalothorax. The legs are strong, moderately long, yellow, and obscurely but broadly banded with dusky brown, the genual, tibial, and metatarsal joints of the first pair being wholly suffused with blackish brown; they are furnished with hairs and spines, the latter chiefly on those of the third and fourth pairs ; the two terminal tarsal claws are slightly toothed ; they are not very strong nor very strongly curved, and there is no claw-tuft beneath. The eyes are rather small, and placed in two very nearly parallel transverse rows ; those of the hind central pair are oval, oblique, and are separated by rather a wider interval than that which separates each from the lateral of the same row on its side ; those of each lateral pair are separated from each other by an interval equal to that which divides the hind lateral and hind central eyes ; the four central eyes form very nearly a square, the fore side being rather the shortest; the eyes of the front row are near together, being about equally separated ; if any thing the interval between those of the central pair of the front row, however, is rather greater than that which separates each from the fore lateral nearest to it; the fore laterals are the largest of the eight; the height of the clypeus is less than half that of the facial space. The abdomen is of a broad oblong-oval form, tolerably convex above, and projecting over the base of the cephalothorax ; it is of a pale dull yellow colour, very sparingly clothed with hairs; but beneath the fore part is a transverse row of strong bristles curving upwards ; this part is blackish brown, as also is a longitudinal central narrow pointed band of the same colour on the fore half: from this band issue at right angles three lateral blackish-brown stripes ; these are continued obliquely over the sides, and are succeeded towards the spinners by several others of a similar nature and parallel to those ou the fore part. The above-mentioned stripes are formed by small blackish-brown spots and markings, and are very distinct and characteristic, standing out strongly on the yellow ground-colour of the abdomen. A single example was found under a piece of stone near Alexandria, Egypt, by myself in April 1864. «> |