OCR Text |
Show 1876.] REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE ON EGYPTIAN SPIDERS. 555 Fam. DICTYNIDES. Gen. DICTYNA, Sund. DlCTYNA INNOCENS. Ergatis innocens, Cambr. Spid. Palest. & Syria, P.Z.S. 1872, p. 262. Adult male, length rather more than I line. Females only of this distinctly marked species were found in Palestine ; but a single adult male example of what I feel no doubt is of the same species, found on a low plant near Cairo, enables me now to give the distinctive characters of the latter sex. In colouis and markings both sexes are alike. The cephalothorax of the male is of a dark yellowish-brown colour, thinly clothed with coarse hoary hairs; the caput is strongly elevated and well rounded ; the clypeus projects considerably forwards, and its height exceeds half that of the facial space. The eyes are in the usual position ; those of the fore central pair are nearer together than each is to the fore lateral eye on its side. The legs are moderate in length and strength ; their relative length is 1, 2, 4, 3. They are of a dull yellow colour, faintly banded with brown, and clothed with coarse hairs, of which many are of a hoary colour. The palpi are of a dull pale yellow colour ; the radial and cubital joints are short, but about equal in length ; and from the upperside at the hinder extremity of the former there is a small thorn-like blackish spine directed forwards ; the digital joint is large and broad; the palpal organs are simple, and surrounded by a strong black spine, which arises from their base on the inner side, and terminates in a fine point near their base on the outer side. The falces are of moderate size, and of the curved form usual in spiders of this genus, though less remarkably so than in some others, and they are of a dark brown colour. The maxilla, labium, and sternum are similar in colour to the falces, and clothed thinly with coarse hoary hairs. The abdomen is oval and projects a little over the base of the cephalothorax ; the ground-colour is dull brownish-yellow clothed with hoary and other hairs; the longitudinal central black-brown marking on the fore part of the upperside is cruciform near its hinder extremity, where it is also strongly bifid, the limbs of the bifid portion being recurved ; this bifid part represents, in fact, the foremost of the series of blackish-brown angular bars running along the middle of the hinder half; the sides are irregularly marked and blotched with dark brown ; and the underside has a broad longitudinal central brown band throughout its length ; and on either side of this band is a large oblong oval whitish patch, formed chiefly by hoary hairs. The transverse supernumerary mammillary organ is present, close in front of the ordinary spinners ; but no calamistra are visible on the metatarsi of the hinder pair of legs. |