OCR Text |
Show 558 REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE ON EGYPTIAN SPIDERS. [June 20, Gen. AGELENA. AGELENA LEPIDA, sp. n. Adult male, length 3 lines; adult female, 3i lines. The whole of the fore part of this Spider is yellow. The cephalothorax has its surface clothed with a grey pubescence ; it is marked with somewhat irregular blackish-brown radiating lines following the direction of the normal grooves and indentations, and bounded laterally bv another broken or interrupted line of the same colour a little way from, and parallel to, the lateral margins, giving the surface of the cephalothorax a somewhat boldly reticulate appearance. The eyes are in the ordinary position, forming two strongly curved and nearly parallel lines, whose convexity is directed backwards. The interval between those of the hind central pair is a little greater than that between each and the lateral eye of the same row on its side; those of the fore central pair are the largest of the eight, they are separated by less than a diameter's interval, and each is very nearly contiguous to the lateral of the same row on its side. The four central eyes form a quadrangular figure whose longitudinal is rather greater than its transverse diameter. The legs are long and tolerably strong, their relative length apparently 4, 1, 2, 3; the difference, however, between those of the second and third pairs is very slight. The femora are thickly and irregularly banded with blackish brown, they are furnished with hairs and long spines; and each tarsus ends with three slightly curved claws, of which the superior pair are pectinated, and the inferior one is much the smallest. The palpi are short and strong; the radial and cubital joints are very short; the latter is the longest, and has a short, moderately strong, bifidly angular prominence at the extremity of its outer side; it has also two long strong curved tapering bristles directed forwards from its upperside, one from the fore, and the other from the hinder extremity ; the radial joint is also somewhat protuberant in front towards the outer side, and is furnished with two pairs of bristles, of the same kind as those on the cubital joint; the digital joint is large equalling the falces in length, and its fore extremity is drawn out into a longish point. The palpal organs are well developed, surrounded on their outer margin with a strong shining corneous-looking yellow-brown fillet, and terminating anteriorly with a strong twisted corneous process of a similar colour. The falces are rather long, strong, straight, prominent in front near their base, and directed rather backwards towards the labium. The maxilla and labium are of normal form, the latter being a little suffused with a dusky blackish hue. The sternum has a strong irregularly edged blackish margin. The abdomen is of a dull yellowish colour, with a broad longitudinal whitish band on its upperside ; this band is mottled, and at the fore part strongly suffused with rusty red; its lateral edges are crenellated or bluntly denticulate, the prominent points being distinctly whiter and brighter than the rest, and forming two nearly parallel |