| OCR Text |
Show 1874.] NEW SPECIES OF ERIGONE. 437 indentations (slightly) dusky blackish, the occipital eminence and the upper part of the frontal prominence being black; some portion of the thorax is minutely punctuose; but the dark part of the caput is very smooth and glossy, and furnished with hairs, mostly directed forwards and backwards over the indentation dividing the lwo lobes ; those on the fore part of the occipital lobe are the most numerous and strongest. The form of the cephalothorax, it will be seen, much resembles that of the European species E. parallela (Bl.) and E. la-tifrons (Cambr.). The eyes are in the usual four pairs ; but the position of those of the two lateral pairs is remarkable, being placed much further backwards than ordinarily ; those of the hind central pair are on the sides of the fore part of the occipital eminence, and separated from each other by an interval of about two diameters ; those of the foremost pair are on the highest part of the frontal lobe, and are nearer together than those of the hind central pair ; and those of each lateral pair are seated contiguously to each other on a small black tubercular prominence, which, however, is very apparent when the Spider is looked at from the front; when looked at in profile the lateral eyes are placed considerably behind those on the occipital eminence. The legs are moderately long, rather slender, of a dull pale orange-yellow colour, and furnished with short hairs. The palpi are rather strong, moderately long, and similar to the legs in colour; the cubital joint is long, rather curved, and enlarges from its hinder to its fore extremity ; the radial joint is very short, but is prolonged at its fore extremity into a long, curved, tapering, sharp-pointed apophysis; the digital joint is not very large, but of rather a peculiar form, having an angular prominence at its hinder part, near which is a short row of a few black curved bristles, more conspicuous than the rest of the hairs on the joint; the palpal organs are prominent and well developed, but not very complex, nor presenting any remarkable feature in structure. The falces are small, similar in colour to the cephalothorax, and, owing to the prominence of the fore part of the caput, placed considerably backwards under it. The maxilla and labium are of normal character, and rather paler in colour than the falces. The sternum is of ordinary size and form, similar to the cephalothorax in colour, and apparently covered with small punctures. The abdomen is of a flattened oval form ; the larger portion of the upper part is covered with a coriaceous punctuose epidermis, of a dark-yellow-brown colour, pretty thickly mottled with clearer yellow-brown ; four more conspicuous spots of this colour form a quadrangular figure on the middle; and behind these are two rather oblique opposed short sinuous similarly coloured lines; the hinder part (which, as well as the sides, is black) has several very slightly angular pale lines or chevrons between the limits of the coriaceous epidermis and the spinners; and the sides are longitudinally wrinkled ; the underside is black ; the spiracular plates are orange-coloured and of large size. |
