| OCR Text |
Show 154 REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE ON THE GENUS IDIOPS. [Mar. 10, Maxillee strong, divergent, with a rudimentary point or prominence at their extremities on the inner side. The labium and sternum present no deviation from the normal structure. The abdomen is small, very convex above, and projects a little over the base of the cephalothorax ; it is of a deep but dull brown colour, and very sparingly furnished with hairs; the spiracular plates (four in number) are large, and similar to the legs in colour : the abdomen was a good deal shrunken in behind, so that it was not easy to get a full view of the spinners; but their number was four, and those of the superior pair appeared to be much longer and stronger than those of the inferior. The example (an adult female) from which the above description was made is in the British-Museum collection; it was captured by the late Captain Speke (in East Africa) during his expedition to the sources of the Nile, and presented to the British Museum by Earl Russell. It is nearly allied to Idiops sigillatus, which it resembles in the general form of the palpi; but it may at once be distinguished from that genus by the entire absence of a spiny armature on the cephalothorax and abdomen, as well as by the want of the four peculiar seal-like markings so characteristic of the abdomen of J. sigillatus. It is with a strong and grateful remembrance of past assistance in the study of Spiders, that I give to this species the name of Mr. Meade, of Bradford, Yorkshire. IDIOPS BLACKWALLII, n. sp. (Plate VIII. fig. 5.) Male adult: length 11 lines ; length of cephalothorax 5| lines, breadth of cephalothorax 5^ lines. This conspicuous Spider is of a deep black-brown colour, the cephalothorax and upperside of the abdomen being densely clothed with a silky adpressed pubescence of a silvery-white colour, offering a striking contrast to the dark (nearly black) colour of the legs and palpi; mingled with this pubescence, on the upperside of the abdomen, are hairs of a yellowish hue towards its fore part, and others of a brownish mouse-colour towards its hinder part: near the middle of the upperside there appeared to be a largish pale-yellow spot or patch ; but this was not traceable with accuracy, owing to the shrunken state of the abdomen : the sides and under part melt gradually from the hue of the upperside into a deep mouse-brown : the spiracular plates (four in number, and glabrous) differ from each other in colour, those of the anterior pair being dark yellow-brown, while those of the posterior pair are of an orange-yellow colour. The cephalothorax is depressed above (without any elevation of the occipital portion of the caput), and of a broad-oval form, narrowest in front, where it is less distinctly truncate, and proportionately rather narrower than in some other species; the hinder part is very broad, and indented on its posterior margin; the form of the cephalothorax is thus heart-shaped, blunt at its narrower end, and nearly resembles that oi Idiops kochii. |
