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Show 740 REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE ON NEW ARANEIDEA. [Nov. 1, issuing from its most prominent part; the radial is large, very prominent and obtuse above, somewhat blunt-conical in form, and armed with hairs, long spines, and strong spiny bristles ; the digital joint is small, oblong-oval; the palpal organs are well developed and complex (though compact), with small corneous processes and spines ; these organs are directed outwards and are jammed up against the radial joint, seeming as though issuing from or articulated to it. The falces are set back rather far beneath the fore part of the caput, the clypeus being low and retreating, owing to the prominence of the upper fore part of the caput; they are inclined backwards towards the maxillae, moderate in length and strength, verv slightly divergent and armed near their inner extremities with a row of curved spiny bristles, apparently in place of the teeth usually occupying that situation ; the colour of the falces is yellow, tinged with hrown, and that of the maxillee, labium, and sternum is yellow ; the form of the sternum is heart-shaped, rather pointedly produced behind. The abdomen is of an oval form, pointed behind ; it is of a dull yellow colour, mottled (chiefly on the sides) with cretaceous white ; the fore part of the upperside has a broad marginal dark-brown band of a somewhat horseshoe form with bold nail-like points of yellow distributed along it; between the extremities of this baud aud about the centre of the upperside of the abdomen is a large roundish-oval blotch of the same colour, also charged with some similar yellow nail-like dots; another blackish patch follows each extremity of the horseshoe band, and behind each of these again is another dark dot; from all of these dark markings spring some strong, erect, bluntish spines, varying a little in length and strength, and surmounted with long tapering bristles directed backwards; the spines which issue from the patches immediately succeeding the horseshoe band are the strongest, blackest, and most conspicuous; these are obtuse at their extremities and devoid of a terminal bristle, perhaps accidentally broken off (?). An adult male of this puzzling Spider was contained in a collection of Spiders received from Mr. Nietner, from Ceylon, in 1869. I am inclined to think that it should be included in the family Epe'irides, although the slenderness and armature of the legs, as well as the form of the maxillae, connect it closelv with the Theridides; the form of the cephalothorax and the tarsal claws, however, seem to connect it more nearly with the former; in which family I have now provisionally included it. Nothing is known of its habits. Family ? Nov. gen. RHION (nom. propr.). Characters of the Genus.-Cephalothorax short, rather flattened above, rounded on hinder margin, and a little compressed laterally at the caput, which is broadish and truncated before. Eyes six in number, rather large and not greatly unequal in size |