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Show 1876.] REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE ON EGYPTIAN SPIDERS. 587 and blunt behind ; its colour is a dull testaceous yellow, clothed with hairs of various dull yellowish brown and black hues ; those just below the fore margin are upturned, black, and bristly; the upperside is marked with blackish spots, some of which form two longitudinal lines, an oblong marking along the middle of the fore half, following which, on the hinder half, are two or three more or less well-defined transverse lines, the middle portion of the second of these lines being strongly curved ; around the margin of the hinder extremity are some small pointed tufts of pale whitish yellow hairs. The spinners are small and short, and, together with the anal tubercle, are partially concealed within a kind of circular sheath, which may be seen when in a rather protruded state in some examples; but in others it is quite invisible; it is probably an exaggeration or more de-? veloped form of this peculiarity of which Baron Walckenaer speaks with respect to Selenops omalosoma, Duf., and is no doubt a remnant of the once segmented abdomen of the Araneidea. The general form of Selenops is strikingly like that of Phrynus, the nearest ally to the true Spiders; and it is not surprising therefore that the segmented form of abdomen in the former should be more visible in the present than in most other known Spiders. This Spider is probably common in houses in Egypt, though I did not myself meet with it except in the Nile boats. According to the sailors' account, it preys upon the cockroaches with which these boats are generally infested. The female differs from the male only in being larger and with shorter and stronger legs. The exceedingly flattened form of this Spider, which runs with inconceivable quickness, and with its legs extended flat on all sides upon the surface, enables it to glide in an instant through cracks and crevices so narrow as to have escaped observation until the Spider disappears, as if by magic, through the wainscoting of the boat. The only way in which I succeeded in capturing this Spider was by observing it when undisturbed and motionless for an instant, and then placing an inverted tumbler over it, when a piece of paper passed carefully behind, put it completely in m y power, and enabled me to chloroform and secure it without the slightest damage to the specimen. I have an adult male of this species from Old Calabar, on the west coast of Africa ; this example only differs in having the abdominal markings more distinct than in the Egyptian specimens. Gen. SPARASSUS, Walck. SPARASSUS WALCKENAERIUS. Sparassus walckenaerius, Sav. et Aud. Egypte, p. 159, pl. vi. fig. 1. Although not rare in Egypt, I was not able to obtain an adult example of either sex of this fine Spider ; no doubt their period of maturity occurs later on towards the summer season, the time when my examples were found being in January and February; the leno*th of the largest example met with (an immature female) is 13 line's. Among other situations in which this species was found, it |