OCR Text |
Show 566 REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE ON EGYPTIAN SPIDERS. [June 20, The palpi are large, similar in colour to the legs, strong and tumid, especially the radial joint, which is of a somewhat globular form. The digital joint is considerably produced at its fore extremity (the produced portion being dark yellowish brown), and terminating with an irregular corneous process. The palpal organs are globular, with a strong corneous process issuing from them and directed backwards ; this process is of a dark red-brown colour mixed with black, of a somewhat twisted form, and very obtuse at its extremity. The maxilla are of the usual form, pale yellow at their base and dark brown at their fore part, the extreme point being whitish. The labium is also dark brown, but pale whitish at its apex. The sternum is dark brown, marked obscurely with some still darker radiating lines. The abdomen is of moderate length, very convex above, gradually and considerably elevated backwards and, in a slightly produced form, at its hinder extremity, giving it a subtriangular shape when looked at in profile; this elevation is much stronger in the female than in the male ; it is of a dull luteous colour ; the fore half of the upperside has an indistinct elongate central longitudinal marking, sometimes pretty distinctly defined by a fine blackish marginal line; this marking is broadest in the middle, where it has an angular point and short oblique line running from it backwards on each side, with a similar point and line on either side of its obtuse termination; following this are two or three duplex angular blackish bars, or chevrons, continued by some fine linear spots and markings towards the spinners ; and on either side of the highest point of the abdomen are two or three blackish irregular spots. The different examples vary in the number, extent, and regularity of these markings; in some specimens most of them are obsolete or nearly so. A broad black and red-brown band occupies the central longitudinal line of the underside, but is usually interrupted a little way from the spinners. The female resembles the male in colours and markings; but her abdomen, as above observed, is more strongly elevated behind, and its markings are generally better-defined ; the genital aperture is a large transverse slit in a strongly but gradually elevated epigyne. The form of the abdomen, which approaches but is not nearly so produced as that of P. caudatus (Duf.), will readily distinguish this species. I met with it pretty frequently among the ruins of the ancient temples in various parts of Egypt above Cairo, but principally in those above Thebes. It is very nearly allied to, but appears to be quite distinct from, Pholcus Igoni, Bl., found in the Calcutta Presidency of India, and which I have myself also received from Bombay (sent to me by Major Julian Hobson) as well as from Calcutta, sent to m e by C. Curtoys, Esq. PHOLCUS RIVULATUS. Pholcus rivulatus, Sav. Egypte, pl. iii. fig. 12. ? Pholcus ruralis, Blackw. Ann. & Mag. N. H. (3) vol. i. p. 432. Adult and immature examples of both sexes of this Spider were |