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Show 1882.] MR. A. G. BUTLER ON SPIDERS FROM MADAGASCAR. 763 10. On some new or little-known Spiders from Madagascar. B y A R T H U R G. B U T L E R , F.L.S., F.Z.S., &c., Assistant Keeper of the Zoological Department, British Museum. [Received December 5, 1882.] (Plate LVII.) In a large collection of Arachnida made by the Rev. Deans Cowan in Madagascar I found a few specimens of very great interest; amongst these the species of the remarkable genus Carostris have already formed the subject of a paper in the ' Annals and Magazine of Natural History' for August last. In addition to many other singular forms were specimens of the curious tailed species Arach-noura scorpionoides of Vinson, from Central Madagascar and the Betsileo country, of the beautifully coloured Peucetia lucasii from the east coast, of Latrodectus geometricus, two examples of the extraordinary Erauchenus workmanni of Cambridge, a specimen of the equally bizarre Augusta papilionacea of the same author, and, last but not least, four specimens of his beautiful Phoroncidia aurata (to which last I shall have occasion to refer later on). THERID I mm. C H R Y S S O , O. P. Cambridge. This genus was founded in the present year (P. Z. S. 1882, p. 429), for the reception of two small Spiders from the Amazons and Ceylon. I now have to add two more from Madagascar. 1. CHRYSSO CORDIFORMIS, sp. n. (Plate LVII. fig. 2.) $ . Falces, maxillae, labium, sternum, and legs of a clear pale yellow colour; the cephalothorax above black, with pale yellow margins ; abdomen above black, ornamented with four large transverse pyriform snow-white spots, two in front and two at the back ; ventral surface dark chocolate-brown. Cephalothorax oblong, rather narrow, slightly expanded towards the back ; caput projecting in front of the eyes, in the middle, and with a slight indentation in the centre of its anterior margin, which is represented by the base of the falces: lateral eyes small, placed longitudinally at the side of the head, of equal size; the anterior pair forming a nearly straight (slightly concave) line with the anterior pair of central eyes ; the latter are twice as large as the lateral eyes and are nearer together than the posterior central pair; the posterior central eyes are larger than the lateral ones, and are separated from the anterior central pair.by a slightly wider interval than from one another ; the eyes of the central oculiferous area therefore form an unequal square, the lateral and central posterior eyes forming a nearly straight line : abdomen convex, cordiform, pointed behind ; legs cylindrical, sparsely setose, 1, 4, 2, 3. Entire length 2 millim. Two examples : Central Madagascar. |