| OCR Text |
Show 1876.] REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE ON EGYPTIAN SPIDERS. 623 The falces are of moderate size and strength, and are placed rather far back, owing to the projection of the ocular area ; they are slightly divergent, and project a little from a vertical position ; their colour is a deep rich red-brown ; and their surface is marked with numerous transverse ingrained striations. The palpi are of moderate length ; and their colour is yellow, the radial joints yellow-brown; the humeral joint is very strong and tumid underneath, with a strong, pointed, tooth-like spur or prominence near its base on the outer side ; this joint is thickly clothed with coarse white hairs : the radial joint is shorter than the cubital, but is produced laterally on each side, and has a pointed apophysis at its extremity underneath ; the digital joint is large, and of an elongate oval form and dark red-brown colour, clothed with dark hairs, a few at the anterior extremity being of a paler hue. The palpal organs are not complex, but highly developed and prominent, extending far backwards beneath, and on the inner side of, the radial joint. The maxilla and labium are blackish-brown, tipped with pale yellow. The sternum is oval, and of a yellow colour. The abdomen is oval, of a somewhat flattened form, and sparingly clothed with hairs; its colour is yellow, marked, but not strongly, on the upperside with yellow-brown, giving some faint indications of an irregular longitudinal central yellowish band (along the fore half of which is a dark marking), and some short, oblique, slightly curved lateral stripes issuing from its hinder half; the lateral margins also of the upperside are irregular, being in some examples marked with short alternate yellowish and yellow-brown oblique markings. The female resembles the male in colours aud markings, though those of the cephalothorax are less strong and distinct than in that sex. Adults of both sexes were found on rocks and walls in Upper Egypt, and three immature examples near Alexandria. MENEMERUS INTEREMPTOR, sp. n. Adult female, length 4 lines. This Spider is nearly allied to M. animatus, but is considerably larger, and though resembling it in its general hue, is even less distinct in its markings. The cephalothorax is dark yellow-brown, darkest on the caput, and with an indistinct yellowish marginal band ; the whole surface is clothed, but not very densely, with yellowish-grey, mixed with a somewhat golden pubescence. The ocular area is broader than long ; and the length of the hinder row of eyes is a little greater than that of the anterior row. The legs are moderately strong, and not very long ; their relative length appears to be 4, 1, 3, 2, though the difference, if any, between 4 and 1, and 3 and 2, respectively, is very slight; those of the first two pairs are yellow-brown, the third and fourth being yellow ; all are furnished, but not very conspicuously, with hairs, slender bristles, and spines; the tarsi are furnished at their extremities with |
