OCR Text |
Show 1876.] REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE ON EGYPTIAN SPIDERS. 599 angular on each side near the middle and blunt-pointed at its hinder extremity ; on either side of this macula, but free from its margins, are two dark spots in a longitudinal line, furnished with bluish-white hairs, the four spots forming nearly a square; four or five other similar spots on each side form two longitudinal lines on the hinder half of the abdomen, the lines converging towards the spinners; these spots are connected into pairs by very faint dusky angular transverse lines, or chevrons, the apex of that which joins the first two spots touching the hinder extremity of the normal macula on the fore part; the sides are mottled with small irregular patches and spots of short bluish-white hairs. A series of examples would probably show some variety in the distinctness of the pattern on the abdomen. A single example only was found in a swamp near Alexandria. It is very nearly allied to Pirata piratica, C. Koch, as well as to P. pis-catoria, C. Koch, and P. hygrophila, Thor. From the first of these the larger size of the spider, as well as the dark colour of the normal macula on the abdomen, will distinguish it at a glance ; from the second, which is of about the same size, the much narrower white marginal border of the cephalothorax, as well as the lateral yellow bands, will, among other differences, serve to distinguish it easily ; while from the third species it is at once separated by its greater size and immaculate (or almost immaculate) legs. It is probably an abundant Spider in the marsh referred to and in others near it; but I was unfortunately unable to pay this locality another visit after the discovery of the single example now described. Gen. TROCHOSA, Koch. T R O C H O S A PARTITA, sp. n. Adult female, length 5 lines. The cephalothorax of this handsome Spider is rather drawn out, though not suddenly constricted laterally at the caput; it is of a yellow-brown colour, margined with a black line and a tolerably regular though not unbroken yellow band ; the middle of the upper-side has a somewhat star-shaped marking, formed by short yellow stripes converging to the thoracic junction; there are also other yellow patches of different sizes on the caput behind the ocular area, which is strongly suffused with black-brown, leaving, however, a clearish yellow space between the eyes of the hinder row. The eyes are in the usual position, the ocular area being about equal in its length and breadth ; the fore centrals are nearly, if not quite, as large as the eyes of the hinder row ; the front row is longer than the middle one, and its eyes are separated by as nearly as possible equal intervals. The leys are moderate in length and strength, their relative length being, as nearly as I could ascertain, 4, 1, 2, 3 ; their colour is yellow, faintly annulated and marked with dusky brown, and furnished with hairs and spines. The falces are of a yellowish colour, clouded with yellow-brown towards their extremities ; the maxilla are yellow, and the labium |