OCR Text |
Show 1877.] REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE ON NEW ARANEIDEA. 567 Podophthalma and those others which I had imagined formerly to be allied genera, viz. Labdacus, Cambr., and Triclaria, C. Koch. I would now suggest that Ocyale should be joined with Podophthalma to form a family, Podophthalmides, which might be placed between the Lycosides and Sphasides, and followed by the family Salticides; or perhaps a yet more natural arrangement would be, still to place the Podophthalmides, as I have hitherto done, between the Thomi-sides and Lycosides. In this case Triclaria and Labdacus would form a transition from the Thomisides to the Podophthalmides, and the latter, although followed immediately by the Oxyopides, would lead unmistakably to the Lycosides through Ocyale. The Oxyopides would, indeed, thus intervene between Ocyale and Dolomedes; but of course this kind of discrepancy cannot be always avoided in a linear arrangement. In any case Triclaria and Labdacus, both of which have three terminal tarsal claws, must be separated from the Thomisides, and should form a family (Triclarides) between them and the Podophthalmides. The arrangement would thus be T H O M I S I D E S , T R I C L A RIDES, P O D O P H T H A L M I D E S , O X Y O P I D E S , LYCOSIDES, SALTICIDES. PODOPHTHALMA ELLIOTI, sp. n. (Plate LVII. fig. 6.) Adult male, length very nearly 9 lines, The cephalothorax of this fine species is oval, much flattened above, and the fore part of the caput, especially the clypeal portion, considerably produced ; at each corner of this part there is a strong, somewhat cylindrical, rather elongated, tubercular prominence, beneath the fore extremity of which is one of the fore lateral eyes. The colour of the cephalothorax is yellow-brown, with a broadish paler margin and central band ; and it is pretty densely clothed with coarse greyish-white pubescence, almost entirely concealing the real colour of the surface. The longitudinal thoracic indentation is strong, and the ordinary converging furrows well marked. The eyes are in four transverse rows, 2, 2, 2, 2; or they may be perhaps more correctly described as forming a large quadrangular figure of four eyes, and about the middle of it is another small quadrangle of the remaining four. The anterior side of the larger quadrangle is longer than the posterior one, while the posterior side of the inner quadrangle is longer than the anterior; in both figures the length is greater than the breadth. The eyes of the foremost row are the largest of the eight; and this row is the same distance from the next one as the latter is from the posterior (or fourth) row, the third row being equidistant between the second and fourth. The eyes of the third row (which are rather smaller than those of the fourth) are separated by an eye's diameter; and those of the second row, which is the shortest of o o the four, are also much the smallest, and are Q Q divided from each other by an eye's diameter. OQ The eyes may also be described as forming a St. Andrew's Cross, whose base is rather longer than 0 0 the width of the upper part. |