| OCR Text |
Show 1876.] REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE ON EGYPTIAN SPIDERS. 593 The cephalothorax is of ordinary form, of a yellowish grey colour, with two very distinct broad lateral longitudinal (but not marginal) dark-brown hands ; these bands, however, touch the margin at the point where they terminate in front, close to the junction of the caput and thorax, behind which their lower margin is rather strongly denticulate. The legs are very long and slender ; their relative length is 4, 3, 2, 1 ; and their colour is pale whitish-yellow, more or less spotted and marked beneath the femora with greyish yellow-brown; and they are furnished with hairs and a few inconspicuous spines. The palpi are similar to the legs in colour ; the radial and cubital joints are short, but of equal length ; and at the outer extremity of the former is a slightly curved, tapering, narrow, pointed brown apophysis ; the digital joint is oval, rather longer than the radial and cubital joints together; the palpal organs are simple in structure, with a slightly curved pointed corneous process, which begins on their inner side, and projects, with a sharp black point, from their extremity. The abdomen is oval, and projects well over the base of the cephalothorax; its fore extremity is rounded, and its posterior extremity blunt-pointed ; it is of a dull cream-grey colour, with the normal marking on the fore half of the upperside very distinct and well defined and of a deep brown colour, with an angular point near the middle on each side, and truncated or blunt-pointed at its hinder extremitv, from each corner of which there projects sometimes a very short oblique dark brown line or point; the sides of the abdomen are obscurely marked and mottled with brown ; but the rest of the surface scarcely shows any trace of colour in markings. The female resembles the male in colours and markings, but is much larger; and the legs are shorter, and their relative proportion appears to differ, being in this sex 4, 2, 3, 1 ; the difference, however, if any, between those of the second and third pairs is exceedingly slight. Adults of both sexes were found in desert places near Alexandria, where they were very difficult to be seen except when moving, owing to the exact adaptation of their colours to the surface of the ground ; and when moving they were exceedingly difficult to capture, owing to the swiftness of their movements. I feel no doubt that these are identical with the species recorded from Palestine, although in all the male specimens and some of the females obtained there, besides the markings above noticed, the remainder of the upper surface of the abdomen is marked more or less distinctly with yellowish brown, forming on the hinder half a somewhat regular, tapering pattern, denticulated on its outer margins, sometimes divided by an indistinct pale longitudinal stripe, and sometimes with several transverse curved or slightly angular dark lines more or less visible ; the cephalothorax also often has the space between the dark lateral bands occupied by a longitudinal tapering dark stripe ; and the legs are of a generally darker and more suffused hue. In fact, it would be correct to describe the Egyptian |
