OCR Text |
Show 584 REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE ON EGYPTIAN SPIDERS. [June 20, before, where it projects fairly over the base of the cephalothorax ; it is of a generally dull sandy yellow-brown colour, and its upper surface furnished with short, strong, curved, black bristles ; the sides and upper margins are very rugulose, the upper edges of the rugu-losities more or less marked with whitish. The normal dentated, broad, longitudinal pale band on the upperside is scarcely visible; and the underside is rather paler than the rest. A single example of this Spider, which I believe to be of an undescribed species, was found on a low plant near Alexandria. XYSTICUS PECCANS, sp. n. Immature female, length 1 \ line. Although apparently far from maturity, I a m induced to describe as a new species several examples found on plants in Egypt, believing that the specific indications afforded by their colours and markings will eventually be corroborated by the structural characters of the adult spiders. The form of the cephalothorax is ordinary; and its colour is dull yellowish brown, darker on the sides than along the middle, and the ocular area dull greyish white, the lateral margins being very distinctly and regularly white. The eyes are normal, but the fore laterals are proportionately larger than usual. The legs are moderately long and tolerably strong, their relative lengths being normal; those of the first and second pairs (except the tarsi, which are pale yellowish) are of a dark brown with a chocolate tinge, most uniform on the tibial, metatarsal, and femoral joints; those of the third and fourth pairs are a uniform pale yellowish, which is also the colour of the palpi, maxillae, labium, steruum, and abdomen. The latter is of a roundish oval form, and (in all the examples found) entirely destitute of markings ; probably, however, this will not he found to be so in the adult examples, in which we may expect to find, though perhaps not very definitely, the normal pattern delineated. The falces are short, strong, and subconical, of a yellowish colour, with a broad, distinct, transverse white band near the middle of their fore side. XYSTICUS SUBCLAVATUS, sp. n. Adult female, length 2g lines. This Spider is closely allied to X. hirtus (Sav.). The cephalothorax has its sides mottled and marked with yellowish white, and yellow-brown of different shades; a broad longitudinal pale whitish band occupies the middle; and along it, from and including the eyes of the hind central pair, runs a yellow-brown bar tapering to a point a little way down the hinder slope. The legs are whitish, mottled and spotted with yellow, and with yellow-brown spots and markings; the tibiae and metatarsi of the third and fourth pairs have each a distinct, although broken, dark blackish-brown annulus. |