OCR Text |
Show 1 899.] AND SPIDERS FROM TROPICAL WEST AFRICA. 865 described it in 1858. Hence its generic position has remained a matter of doubt. THALASSIUS FORMOSUS, sp. n. (Plate LVII. fig. 19.) 2 . Besembling the preceding in its robust, thickly plumose legs, form of vulva, & c ; but differing essentially in colour. Side of carapace covered with a thick coating of yellow hairs, with a narrow brown inferior band above the black border ; upperside mostly covered with deep-brown hairs, which on each side invade and break the continuity of the lateral yellow posterior area. Clypeus brown, the brown area sharply defined at the sides by the yellow hair clothing the sides of the head. Upperside of abdomen yellow and rich olive-brown, the latter arranged in distinct patterns, forming a posterior median patch, in front of which there are five transverse stripes, the anterior broader than the posterior; also small deep brown spots scattered here and there on tbe yellow, and the blood-red patches noticeable on guineensis also present. Upperside of legs yellow, banded with brown ; femora with a broad basal brown band and a narrower band of the same colour, about one fourth of the distance from the apex ; patella brown, slightly yellow distally; base of tibia narrowly, apex more widely brown ; base and apex of protarsus and of tarsus brown. Measurements in millimetres.-Total length 21 ; length of carapace 10, 1st leg 35*5, 2nd leg 36, 3rd leg 33, 4th leg 38. Loc. Benito Biver (67. L. Bates). Although not quite adult, the type of the species shows the same form of vulva as in subadult examples of T. guineensis. THALASSIUS INORNATUS, sp. n. 5 . Colour much as in T. guineensis; carapace and abdomen covered with a uniform mixture of brown and yellowish-grey hairs; abdomen ornamented posteriorly at the sides with some blood-red patches running into ill-defined stripes ; integument of abdomen olive-yellow, with a median anterior pale narrow lanceolate area; legs uniformly brown, covered with greyish-white hairs. Carapace a little less than tibia of 1st and 4th and than protarsus of 4th leg, slightly longer than protarsus of 1st. Legs much less thickly plumose than in guineensis; patella aud tibia of 4th a little less than those of 1st. Lower side of abdomen covered with short slender hairs, interspersed amongst the normal hairy coating. Lateral lobes of vulva irregularly subquadrate ; the inner edge longitudinally truncate and almost contiguous throughout their length, being merely separated for a short distance anteriorly by a narrow median sclerite ; anterior depression of vulva marked with a pale membranous spot on each side, and on the inner side of the spot with a black, thickly chitinous ridge. Loc. Benito Biver (67. L,. Bates). Iu colour, &c, closely resembling the Somaliland species T. unicolor Simon (in Donaldson Smith's ' Through Unknown African |