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Show 5 76 REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE ON EGYPTIAN SPIDERS. [June 20, in a note that the Epeira lucina of Savigny is no other than the Singa hamata, C. Koch (Epeira tubulosa, Blackw., & c ) . I think, however, that this is not so. In the figure given by Savigny a very constant specific character is delineated in the pale markings on the two dark longitudinal bands on the abdomen : in S. hamata these are represented by markings which always completely divide the dark hands in a transverse direction, while in S. lucina these markings are always confined within the band as shown in Savigny's figure, and as observed constantly in the examples found in Egypt, and also in many more found in Palestine. I do not at all doubt the occurrence in Egypt of S. hamata, C. K , though I did not myself meet with it either there or in Palestine ; but, for the above reasons, independently of its larger size, I feel sure that it is not the same as E. lucina, Sav. Gen. ARGIOPE, Sav. ARGIOPE AURELIA. Argiope aurelia, Sav. Egypte, pl. ii. tig. 5. Adult females of this fine Spider were found, not unfrequently, in the gardens and orange-groves at Shoubra and other places near Cairo, sitting in the midst of their large orbicular snares. A R G I O P E STICTICALIS, sp. n. It is with some hesitation that I give here as a new species some immature Spiders swept up among low herbage near Alexandria. It is possible that they are but the immature form of A. aurelia. In these young examples the abdomen is of a less flattened form than in that species, and is destitute of the transverse banding so distinct in the adult (and nearly adult) forms of A. aurelia, the uniform covering of minute cretaceous white points being only broken by a dull longitudinal branching line and here and there a blackish marking. The legs also, instead of being, as in A. aurelia, very distinctly annulated with black, are simply black-speckled, chiefly on the femora, and especially on those of the first pair. Gen. CYRTOPHORA, Sim. CYRTOPHORA OPUNTLE. Cyrtophora opuntia, Duf. An. Sc. Phys. torn. iv. pl. 69. fig. 3. This Spider is abundant on the prickly pear, sont acacia, young date-palms, and other low trees and shrubs, near and above Cairo. Gen. EPEIRA, Walck. EPEIRA CHLORIS. Epeira chloris, Sav. et Aud. Egypte, pl. iii. fig. 5. Adults of both sexes were found not unfrequently on low plants in Upper Egypt*. * The Spider described as an Argiope (Argiope epeiroides) in Spid. Palest. & Syr., P. Z. S. 1872, p. 301, but which is certainly not an Argiope, is very nearly allied to Epeira chloris, Savigny; it is, however, larger, of an even more elongated form, and differs in the pattern on the abdomen, as well as iu the structure of the palpal organs. |