OCR Text |
Show 1881.] REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE ON NEW ARANEIDEA. 771 The female differs from the male chiefly in the abdomen being not quite so long, and the caput wanting the elevation of the fore part. This curious Spider is nearly allied to Ariamnes {Ariadne) fiagellum, Dol., but is, I think, quite distinct. The extraordinary development of the posterior part of the abdomen is perhaps one of the eccentricities in the Spider world least easy to be accounted for. Both sexes were contained in the collection of South-American Spiders sent to me by Prof. Traill, and were found on the Amazons. Fam. GASTERACANTHID*. Gen. MUTINA, Cambr. MUTINA FURCIFERA, sp. n. (Plate LXVI. fig. 4.) Length of the adult male If line ; breadth of the abdomen at its widest part lg. This curiously formed Spider is nearly allied to Mutina prospiciens, Cambr. (Ann. & Mag. N. H . ser. 4, vol. xiv. p. 175, pi. xvii. fig. 3, 1874), described under the generic name of Calydna, which, having been found to be preoccupied, was changed to Mutina (vide Zool. Rec. xi. p. 231). The present Spider, however, may be at once distinguished by the simpler and more cylindrical form of the remarkable processes at the extremity of which the lateral pairs of eyes are seated, and especially by the equally long corneous nose-like process issuing from the clvpeus immediately beneath the four central eyes ; this process, which is of a cylindrical form, is a little bent, and points rather downwards ; it is smallest in the middle, gradually lessening from the base, and enlarging again towards its extremity, where it is strongly and very distinctly bifid or forked. The cephalothorax is somewhat elongated quadrate, strongly constricted on the margins and sides at the caput. The four central eyes are placed at the fore extremity of a slightly prominent portion of the caput; they are rather large, and describe very nearly a square whose fore side is rather the shortest. The colour of the cephalothorax is a deep reddish yellow-brown, the fore part being the palest. The legs are rather short, moderately strong, 1, 2, 4, 3, furnished with hairs and a very few long bristles ; a short strongish spine issues from a tubercle in front of the femora of the second pair, and some very short, somewhat tuberculiform spines in a single row along the underside of the tibiae of the same pair. The colour of the legs is yellow-brown ; the femora and fore part of the tibiae of the first and second pairs strongly suffused with dark brown, as also are the femora of the fourth pair. The palpi are very short; the digital joint is large, and the palpal organs complex and enormously developed. The abdomen is of a short heart-shape and of a dull brownish yellow hue. The upper surface is rather flat, corneous, and presents traces more or less distinct of the various sigilliform markings characteristic of the Gasteracanthidae. A kind of corneous point terminates the underside of the connecting pedicle, and projects |