OCR Text |
Show 696 REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE ON NEW [Nov. 18, LINYPHIA MELANOPYGIA, sp. n. (Plate LIII. fig. 13.) Adult male, length 1^ line. The cephalothorax is of a yellow-brown colour, rather the darkest on the caput, the lateral marginal constrictions of which are slight. The profile line forms a slight but even curve from the eyes backwards. The clypeus rather exceeds in height half that of the facial space, and there are a few short bristly hairs on the upperside of the fore part of the caput, towards and in the ocular area. The eyes are of tolerable and nearly equal size, and (excepting the fore-centrals) of a pearl-grey hue ; those of the posterior row are separated by very nearly equal intervals of less than a diameter of one of the hind-central pair, each of which last is separated by a diameter's distance from the fore-central opposite to it; those of each lateral pair are placed obliquely on a strongish tubercle. The fore-centrals are the smallest, and each of them is separated from the fore-lateral eye next to it by rather less than a diameter's interval. The leys are moderately long and not very slender (1, 4, 2, 3 or 1, 2, 4, 3) ; some of the joints being lost, made it difficult to decide their relative length with accuracy. They are furnished with hairs and a few fine spines (none of the last being on the metatarsi) ; their colour is a uniform bright and rather orange-yellow. The palpi are moderately long, similar in colour to the legs, excepting the digital joint, which is yellow-brown. The radial joint is somewhat shorter but stronger than the cubital; it is rather produced on its outer side a little in front, terminating in a bifid form, not very easy to make out clearly, excepting from certain points of view; but the upper portion of this part is tipped with blackish, and is the most prominent of the two. The digital joint is rather small, with a lobe on the outer side. The palpal organs are complex, with, among others, a long, strongish, curved, black-tipped, obtusely pointed spine-like process on their inner side, directed forwards and rather outwards. The falces are similar in colour to the cephalothorax, strong, considerably prominent at their base in front, divergent, rather attenuated at their extremities, towards which is a strong sharp tooth on the inner side in front, with two or three much smaller, sharp denticu-lations behind it. The maxillee are strong, inclined to the labium, gibbous in front, and have one or two angular points or prominences, each surmounted by a bristle, on tbe gibbous portion. These angular prominences are peculiar and characteristic, but it is very probable that they are only sexual characters. The maxillee and labium are rather lighter-coloured than the falces, the sternum being of a similar hue to that of the cephalothorax, glossy, and furnished with a few strongish prominent bristles. The abdomen is of a pale bright red colour, obscurely streaked (when in spirit of wi-ie) with yellowish, and clothed thinly with coarse dark hairs, the posterior extremity, in the form of a strong ring round the spinners, being jet-black ; the spinners are pale yellowish brown. |