| OCR Text |
Show 1899.] NEW EXOTIC ARANEIDEA. 525 P H R Y N A R A C H N E FATALIS, sp. n. (Plate X X X . fig. 7.) Female (not quite adult), length 2\ lines. Cephalothorax short, broad, nearly if not quite as broad as long, slightly roundly-truncate before; lateral marginal impressions at caput tolerably strong. Height of clypeus less than half that of the facial space. From the ocular area to the beginning of the hinder slope is a tolerably well-defined quadrate, somewhat elevated platform, which terminates at each corner in a strong conical prominence. There is also a strong tubercular eminence in the middle of each of the areas formed by the two groups of eyes (the two laterals and the fore and hind central eyes on each side). The sides of the cephalothorax are also covered with lesser tubercles of different sizes. Tbe colour of the cephalothorax is yellow-brown, mixed on the clypeus, the sides, and hinder slope with deep brown. The eyes do not differ greatly in size; they form a wider area than in the typical species. They are in two transverse curved lines whose convexity is directed forwards ; the anterior line is much the shorter, aud its curve a little stronger. The central quadrangle is broader than long, and its anterior side shorter than the posterior. The hind-central pair are smallest, and the fore-laterals largest of the eight. The hind-centrals are slightly farther apart than from the hind-laterals. The fore-centrals are about double as far apart as the fore-laterals. Legs very robust, short, 2-1-4-3 ; 2 & 1 and 4 & 3 respectively not very different in length, the former longer and stronger; tuberculous, especially the fore part of the basal half of the femora ; genua? strongly angular ; armed with spirfes, those of the metatarsi and tibiae of the first two pairs much the stronger. Colour pale dull brownish yellow, blotched in parts with white and suffused with whitish ; the anterior half' of the first and second pairs black brown. Tarsi end with a small thin claw-tuft. A strong spur in front of each of the femora, used probably, as in P. (Ornithoscatoides) decipiens Forbes-Cambr., for adhering (when on its back) to a leaf for capturing its prey. Falces powerful, conical, broad and rather flattened in front; colour yellowish brown mottled with white. Maxillce and labium normal, deep brown in colour ; the former pale at the extremities. Sternum oval, broadly hollow-truncate before, and similar in colour to the maxillae and labium. Abdomen short, broad, roundly truncate at both ends, but much broader behind, rather flattened above ; covered thickly above and along the sides with tubercles and conical prominences of various sizes ; four of the largest of these latter, of a mottled yellowish-brown colour, form a large central quadrangle whose posterior side is shorter than the rest, the two foremost of the prominences being much the larger ; both before and behind this quadrangle is another pair, nearer together, of much smaller, similarly coloured prominences ; on each outer margin towards the hinder part is a con- |
