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Show 144 DR. T. THORELL ON SPIDERS FROM NEW [Mar. 2, are armed with tolerably numerous spines, which are very long and appressed on the underside of the tibiae and metatarsi: the thighs of the first pair of legs, for instance, have above 1, 1, before and behind 1, 1, 1, beneath 2, 2 spines ; their patella has one spine behind, the tibia and metatarsus before and behind 1, 1, beneath 2, 2 spines, the tibia, moreover, one spine above. The tarsi are fusiform, convex longitudinally above; their underside, like that of the anterior metatarsi, is provided with a scopula. This species must probably be removed from Heteropoda (Latr.), Thor.* (of which genus Aranea venatoria, Linn., Olios leucosios, Walck., is typical), and should perhaps be made the type of a separate genus. PHRYNARACHNE f FOKA (Vins.). 1863. Thomisus foka, Vins. Aran, de la Reunion, cet. p. 69, pl. xiv. fig. 4. 1865. Thomisus foka, Vins. Voyage a, Madagascar, p. 186, pl. iv. fig. 3. It is very uncertain whether this species be the true "foka" or " fook " of the natives of Madagascar ; as to their opinions regarding the venomousness of that redoubted Spider vide Vinson, Aran, de la Reunion, &c. p. 71. But in his letter to m e Dr. Vinson says :- " Depuis mon voyage a Madagascar, j'ai des doutes sur les qualites veneneuses qu'on prete a cette araignee. Je l'ai trouvee a la Reunion (la meme) fort inoffensive. La fameuse Foka ou Fouque, comme disent les Malgaches, serait le fameux Eresus guerinii qui habite aussi l'Algerie. C'etait m a premiere opinion par analogie de contree et de voisinage geographique, et j'y reviens. Je n'ai pu jusqu'a present toutefois approfondir cette question." The specimen sent me by Dr. Vinson, an adult female, is from Madagascar. Its colour is dark reddish brown, with exception of the tibiae, metatarsi, and tarsi, and the tibial and tarsal joints of the palpi, which parts are of a bluish black colour. The structural details contained in the following description may in some degree serve as a complement to that given by Dr. Vinson. Fcemina. Cephalothorax pane 6 millim. longus, 5j millim. latus, tibiam cum patella primi paris longitudine saltern aquans, lat. frontis leviter rotundatce 2| millim., lateribus partis thoracica fortiter et ample rotundatis ; margine postico emarginato ; altis-simus, a medio anteriora et posteriora versus satis aqualiter declivis, declivitate postica nitida, fere leevi, fovea media rotundata mediocri, parum profunda ; praterea tuberculis magnis et parvis undique valde inaqualis et scaber, tuberculis majoribus plerisque partis cephalica in ordines longitudinales tres minus (equates ordinatis, impressionibus cephalicis parum expressis clypeus scaber et tuberculatus, non directus, sed cum mandibulis * On Eur. Spid. pp. 174, 177. t Phrynarachne, Thor. 1869, = Phrynoides, Sjm., 1864 (vide Thor., On Eur. Spid. pp. 37, 182). [Phrynoidis, Fitz. (Eeptil.j, 1843.] |
