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Show 1899.] NEW EXOTIC ARANEIDEA. 519 of the spider when alive, drawn by Mrs. Diinock Brown. It is nearly allied to, but, I think, quite distinct from, Poltys furcifer Simon (a Zanzibar species). The drawings (figs. 4a, 4b, 4c, Pl. XXIX.) represent this spider suspended by the terminal tarsal claws to its web, in a state of rest. Fam. THERAPHOSIDJE. E V A G R U S PRISTINUS, sp. n. (Plate X X I X . fig. 1.) Adult male, length rather over 4 lines. General form and structure normal. Cephalothorax yellow-brown, with somewhat indistinct radiating stripes of a darker hue. Falces similar in colour, their upperside furnished with a wedge-shaped area of strong prominent bristles, the point of the wedge directed backwards. Legs also similar in colour, strong, moderate in length, 4-1-2-3. Tibias of the second pair very strong, rather prominent underneath, where the larger anterior half is furnished with 11-12 strong spines increasing in length backwards, the last three being disproportionately long and strong. The metatarsi of this pair are rather longer than the tarsi and are of a slightly sinuous form, wdth two somewhat obtusely conical diffused prominences, one on either side, underneath. The palpi are of moderate length, and strong; the radial joint is about double the length of the cubital and much stronger, considerably convex and prominent on the upperside, and of a somewhat oval form, clothed with long bristles and hairs, some of the former, on the upper and under sides, being almost spines, and others in a denser group near the hinder extremity outside; the digital joint is short, broadest at its extremity which has a truncated appearance, with a largish obtuse lobe near the middle of the inner side. The palpal organs are of the ordinary simple Theraphosid form, consisting of a pyriform bulb, the anterior portion drawn out gradually into a long tapering spine ending in a fine hair-like point. The bulb is of a pale brownish-yellow colour, and along its inner side is a broad, curved, very distinctly defined yellow-brown band indicating tbe position of the seminal duct. Labium broad, as broad as the fore extremity of the sternum, lowj of a somewhat semicircular or crescent form, with a slight appearance of emargination at the apex, where there are a few short bristly hairs but no spines. Abdomen subcylindrical, yellowish brown, pretty thickly clothed with long, somewhat golden-brown bristly hairs. Superior pair of spinners long, tapering, as long as (or even slightly longer than) the abdomen ; the firsc and second joints are of equal length, the third, or terminal one, much the longest. A single example received many years ago from Bogota. 34* |