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Show 284 REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE ON SPIDERS [Mar. 20, Family EPEIRIDES. Genus NEPHILA, Leach. NEPHILA CHRYSOGASTER. Epeira chrysogaster, Walck. Ins. Apt. ii. p. 92. Nephila chrysogaster, Cambr. P. Z. S. 1871, p. 620, pl. xlix. figs. 3 4. ' Numerous examples of this enormous Epeirid were contained in M r Brown's collections. It is most probably identical with Aranea maculata, Fabr. (A. longipes, Fabr., and Nephila maculata, Leach), as well as with N. imperialis, Dol. I have myself received it from several parts of a wide exotic area, including Ceylon, Bombay, Manilla, Labuan, Hongkong, and Celebes ; Mr. Brown's examples now add another locality to those already recorded. In all of these localities it appears to be an abundant Spider. I have, however, only as yet received the male from Manilla, Labuan, and Ceylon. This sex is so minute (scarcely measuring more than two lines in length, while the female reaches as much as two inches and even more) and is so unlike the female in form, colours, and structure, that it is probably on these accounts overlooked by collectors who have not had their attention specially called to the fact of this great disparity between the sexes. Genus ARGIOPE, Sav. A R G I O P E BRO*WNII, sp. n. Adult female, length very nearly 9 lines. The cephalothorax is as long as broad, the thorax nearly round, broader than long ; the caput is suddenly and strongly constricted laterally, and projects forward. The upper surface is flat, and its colour is dark brown; the occipital region, that of the four central eyes, and a longitudinal stripe running from them to the occiput are brownish orange-yellow ; the sides (towards the margins) are covered with small tubercular granulosities ; and the normal converging indentations are covered with light-grey adpressed hairs ; the stripes of grey thus formed converge to the thoracic indentation, which is large and deep, and give tbe cephalothorax a very distinctly radiated appearance. There are other hairs also ; but these are the chief. The eyes of the four central and lateral pairs are seated on strong tubercular prominences and (looked at from the front) in a straight line. They are all small and do not differ very much in size ; the four central eyes form a quadrangular figure whose fore side is shorter than the hinder one, and its longitudinal considerably longer than its transverse diameter ; the interval between the eyes of the fore central pair rather exceeds a diameter; and the height of the clypeus is less than half that of the facial space. The legs are long and tolerably strong, of a dark reddish yellow-brown colour, furnished with hairs, bristles, and spines : the hairs and bristles appear to be most numerous underneath the tibiae ; but |