OCR Text |
Show 1876.] REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE ON EGYPTIAN SPIDERS. 583 stripe, pointed at each end, and its edges dark red-brown ; the are rugulose, pale chocolate-brown, spotted with whitish and dark red-brown; the underside also is chocolate-brown, mottled finely with a deeper hue ; the spinners are surrounded by a broken white line. A female (which I feel no doubt is of this species) was of a generally paler and more ashy hue, but otherwise resembled it in form and marking?. Although so exceedingly closely allied to X. cristatus and X. audax, I have no doubt that the present is a perfectly distinct species, and that collectors will have but little difficulty in distinguishing it by its general appearance, apart from the special differences of the structure of the male palpi. The examples above described were found on low plants near Alexandria. XYSTICUS FERUS, sp. n. Adult female, length 3j lines. This fine but plainly-coloured Spider is allied to X. bifasciatus, C. Koch ; its general form and structure are of the normal type. The cephalothorax is of an orange-yellow-brown colour veined and marked with red-brown, especially on the hinder slope; the ocular region and the middle of the clypeus whitish yellow ; the normal spade-shaped marking, behind the eyes, is scarcely defined by an obscure yellow marginal line, its hinder extremity, however, being more apparent and of a whitish-yellow colour ; from between the two hind central eyes to the beginning of the hinder slope, two parallel red-brown lines, close together, divide the caput longitudinally; the surface of the cephalothorax is thinly furnished with bristly hairs. The eyes are in the ordinary position, and unequal in size, the fore laterals considerably the largest; those of the hind central pair are slightly larger, and nearer together than those of the fore central pair, the latter being further from each other than each is from the fore lateral on its side; while the eyes of the hind central pair are much nearer to each other than each is to the hind lateral on its side ; the height of the clypeus is less than half that of the facial space. The legs are not very long, but strong ; they are yellow, marbled underneath, particularly the femora of the first and second pairs, with white, and furnished with hairs, bristles, and spines, the latter disposed in the usual way. The falces are rather short, strong, but conical, similar in colour to the cephalothorax, with the anterior portion washed with yellowish white, and the front surface armed with strong black bristles. The palpi are similar to the legs in colour, and furnished with bristles and spines. The maxilla and labium are of normal form, and, with the sternum, similar to the legs in colour ; the sternum, however, is obscurely marbled with vellowish white. The abdomen is oval, blunt, pointed behind and roundly truncated |