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Show 568 REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE ON EGYPTIAN SPIDERS. [Julie 20, Gen. LITHYPHANTES, Thor. LITHYPHANTES HAMATUS. Phrurolithus hamatus, Koch, Die Arachn. v. p. 105, pl. 206. fig. 507-8. Lathrodeclus hamatus, Cambr. P.Z.S. 1872, p. 288. Adult females were found under stones near Alexandria in April 1864. It is an exceedingly variable species in respect to its markings : two of those met with had an entirely black abdomen; and the rest varied considerably in the extent and colour of the normal pattern ; most probably the Phr. lunatus and Phr. erythrocephalus (Koch), /. c. fig. 509, 510, as well as Latrodectus venator, Sav. Egypte, pl. 3. fig. 11, and Latrodectus ornatus, Luc, Explor. in Alger, p. 233, pl. 14. fig. 8, are varieties of this species. The chief, if not the only, difference between Latrodectus and Lithyphantes consists in the wide separation of the eyes of the lateral pairs of the former, whereas in the latter they are contiguous or nearly so. Gen. S T E A T O D A (Sund.). S T E A T O D A SIGNATA, sp. n. Length of an adult female, \\ line. This Spider is of ordinary form and general characters ; the cephalothorax, falces, maxillae, labium, and sternum are of an orange-yellow colour tinged with brown; the legs, whose relative length appeared to be 1, 4, 2, 3, are rather short and slender; they are of a dull pale yellowish colour, furnished with hairs only, and the femora, especially of the first and second pairs, are strongly suffused with a dusky brown hue. The abdomen is short, oval, very convex above, though rather flat on the upperside, abruptly rounded behind, and projects considerably over the base of the cephalothorax ; it is glossy, and clothed thinly with fine pale hairs ; its colour is a uniform kind of maroon or purplish red-brown, marked on the upperside with some elongate pointed oval pale dull yellowish markings, more or less covered with cretaceous white spots; three of these markings are situate on each side of the upper part, at equal intervals from the fore to the hinder extremity, the rest form a broken longitudinal central line on the hinder half. The four foremost of these markings form a large square whose fore side is a little shorter than the rest. A single example of the female of this species, which at first sight very nearly resembles Asagena serratipes in the colour and markings of the abdomen, was found under a large stone at Alexandria. STEATODA? MANDIBULARS. Theridion mandibulare, Luc. Explor. en Algerie, p. 260, pl. 17. fig. I. Pachygnatha ? mandibularis, Cambr. Spid. Palest, and Syria, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 294. Steatoda mandibulare, Sim. Bull. Soc. Ent. Fr. 1875, p. 222. Epeira diversa, Bl. Ann. & Mag. N. II. Oct. 1859. Adult males of this remarkable Spider were found running on the |
