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Show 1876.] REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE ON EGYPTIAN SPIDERS. 563 square whose fore side is a little longer than the hinder side, the two eyes forming the fore side being the largest of the eight, and separated from each other by an interval of rather more than an eye's diameter. The leys are strong, but of more moderate length as compared with those of Hersilia, and the metatarsi are undivided; their relative length appears to be 4, 2, 1, 3, those of the first and second pairs are unicolorous, while the femora and, in some examples, the tibiae of those of the third and fourth pairs are faintly annulated with dusky brown; they are furnished with hairs and a few short fine spines. The palpi are strong and moderately long ; the radial and cubital joints are short, about equal in length, and of a somewhat tumid or nodiform appearance ; the humeral joint has a few black spines dispersed on its upperside, and there are a few bristles on the other joints; the digital joint is drawn out at the fore extremity into a longish point (like that of the genus Tegenaria) and terminates with two black, slightly curved claws, in this point resembling Hersilidia simonii, Cambr. (found in the Jordan valley and at Jerusalem). The palpal organs are of a somewhat flattened circular form, encircled with a dark corneous margin or closely fitting spine, and have two small erect corneous processes near together, about the middle of their fore part, one of these processes being shorter and more obtuse but stronger than the other. The falces, maxilla, and labium are of normal form ; and the sternum has a hroadish dusky-brown lateral margin. The abdomen is of an oblong-oval form, a little broadest towards its hinder part, rather truncate before, and projecting a little over the base of the cephalothorax; it is of a straw-yellow colour, clothed with a fine grey pubescence ; on the upperside a well-defined longitudinal black-brown marking occupies the middle line ; this marking begins near the fore margin and extends halfway to the spinners, and is very strongly angulated on its edges, the middle part being the strongest, and taken by itself forming a large diamond-shaped patch; the sides are marked with three or four oblique lines of small elongated brown spots reaching quite to the underside, which is of a plain dull luteous colour ; the spinners are short compared with those of Hersilia, but similar in position and character, and resembling the legs in colour. The female (immature) resembles the male in colours and markings. This species is nearly allied to Hersilidia simonii, Cambr. ; but, besides being larger, it differs both from that species and from II. oraniensis, Luc, in being of a different hue and much less strongly marked, especially in the annulation of the legs ; the pattern also on the abdomen differs notably from that of H. simonii; and there are on the abdomen none of the coarse hairs with which that of H. simonii is furnished. Two adult males and several immature examples of both sexes were found under stones in the desert between Alexandria and Ramleh. Their position is usually with the legs extended flat upon the underside of the stone, with the sandy- |
