OCR Text |
Show 1870.] REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE ON NEW ARANEIDEA. 739 present genus to which it can be referred. Nothing is known of its habits; the wide separation of the three groups of eyes, with the very peculiar form of the cephalothorax and the structure of the maxillae, make it a remarkable species, and one which, when looked at from in front, might easily be mistaken for a four-eyed Spider. Nov. gen. (ETA (nom. propr.). Characters of the Genus.-Cephalothorax rather depressed above, and rounded on the outer margin ; caput broad, flattened, and produced in front into three prominent productions, all in the same plane; the central prominence bears the four central eyes at its extremity in the form of a quadrangle, and each of the lateral prominences a lateral pair of eyes. Abdomen oval, pointed behind, not very convex above, armed on the upperside with tuberculiform spines, mostly surmounted with long and strongish bristles. Legs rather long, slender, armed tolerably thickly with hairs and long spine-like bristles ; tarsal claws three in number, toothed, and with some supernumerary opposed pectinated ones beneath ; relative length of legs 4, 1, 2, 3. Maxillee strong, moderately long, inclined towards the labium, and obliquely truncate, rather on the outer sides, at their extremities ; inner extremities pointed. Labium short, broad, and apex curved. GIITA SPINOSA, n. sp. (Plate XLIV. fig. 7.) Male adult, length 1| line. The cephalothorax has the thoracic region of a yellow colour ; the normal grooves and indentations are fairly marked ; the caput is of a deep brown, softening into a pale yellow-brown on the lower margins, and furnished with long bristly hairs; the two lateral projections at its fore extremity are rather pointed, of considerable length, divergent from and rather longer than the central prominence, which is, however, the strongest of the three, obtuse, and slightly impressed at its extremity. Eyes eight, not very unequal in size ; two contiguous to each other are placed at the extremity, on the outer side of and beneath each lateral prominence of the caput; a pair almost (but not quite) contiguous at the base on the upperside of the central prominence, and another pair at its extremity, much wider apart than those of the pair at its base, and, in fact, occupying its fore corners; these four form an oblong rectangular figure whose fore side is much the widest. Except those at the base of the central prominence, which are pearly white, the eyes are of a somewhat amber-colour of different shades. The colour of the legs is pale yellow. Palpi short, of a yellowish colour; the cubital, radial, and digital joints are dark brown ; the cubital is short, pointedly prominent above, and has a long and somewhat sinuous dark spiny bristle |