OCR Text |
Show 568 REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE ON NEW ARANEIDEA. [June 19, The legs are long and moderately strong, furnished with hairs, bristles, and strongish spines; their relative length is 1,4, 2, 3, or 4, 1, 2, 3, the difference between 1 and 2 being slight (in the only male examined the fourth pair were wanting) ; the shorter hairs are white, and give a grey hue to the legs, whose real colour is yellow-brown with here and there a paler annulus. Each tarsus ends with three claws, of which the superior pair are distinctly pectinated. The palpi are moderate in length and strength, and their colour and clothing of grey hairs are like those of the legs; the radial joint is a little longer and stronger than the cubital, being enlarged gradually towards its fore extremity, where, on the outer side, is a short, deep red-brown, curved, blunt-pointed, corneous apophysis; there is also a long, tapering, spine-like, prominent bristle at the inner side of its posterior extremity; the digital joint is large and hairy, and its length exceeds that of the radial and cubital joints together, being almost, if not quite, equal to that of the humeral joint; in its general form and appearance the digital joint is like that of Tegenaria and Ocyale, the fore extremity being much produced into a long, narrow, tapering point. The palpal organs are placed beneath the posterior half of the digital joint, and comprise several strong, bulbous-looking, corneous processes, each terminating in a sharp point. The falces are strong, tolerably long, and straight, but directed rather backwards towards the sternum; they are similar to the cephalothorax in colour, and are also clothed with grey hairs and a few prominent dark bristles. The maxillee are strong, tolerably long, broader at their upper extremity than at the middle, and straight, almost exactly resembling those of Ocyale, Dolomedes, and many Lycosee, their colour and clothing being similar to those of the falces. The labium is of a short oblong form, half the length only of the maxillse, and truncated at the apex ; this is paler than the rest, the general colour being like that of the maxillae. The sternum is of a short heart-shape, and its colour and clothing are like those of the falces. The abdomen is long, and tapers gradually to its hinder extremity ; its general colour is }*ellowish brown, clothed with hairs, most of which have a greyish hue ; the upperside is occupied by a broad, tapering, longitudinal dark-brown band, whose margins at the hinder part are bluntly denticulate ; this band is bordered on each side by a pale yellow-brown stripe, clothed densely with white hairs ; and another similar longitudinal stripe occupies the middle of its anterior portion ; and on each side of this latter stripe is a largish, round, dark-brown, impressed spot. The female resembles the male, but is larger. In the female the legs of the fourth pair appear to be the longest; and probably those of the male are also similarly proportioned. The spinners are short, two-jointed, of equal, or nearly equal, length ; and those of the inferior pair are the strongest. The form of the genital aperture is peculiar and characteristic. |