OCR Text |
Show 1880.] OF THE GENUS ARGYRODES. 337 The cephalothorax, legs, palpi, falces, and other anterior parts are yellow-brown, the legs and palpi being rather the lightest in colour. The eyes of the hind central pair are further from each other than each is from the hind lateral eye on its side; those of the anterior row are as nearly as possible equidistant from each other. The legs are long and slender, those of the first pair (judging by the femora, which are all that remained of them) of great length. Their armature consists, as usual, of fine hairs only. The palpi are moderately long ; the digital joints are rather large, oval, and dark yellowish brown ; the palpal organs are moderately complex, but compact; the cubital joint is curved and clavate, and longer than the radial. The abdomen is long, narrow, and slightly tapering to the apex, which is bluff and rounded ; and on each side a little before the apex is a small obtusely angular prominence. The general colour of the abdomen is yellowish brown, marked above and on the sides with silvery spots and suffusions; along the middle of the upperside is a long tapering deep-blackish-brown marking, whose posterior extremity, narrowed to a line, reaches very nearly to the apex. The most conspicuous of the silvery markings on the sides form two somewhat irregular oblique lines, the hinder one of which ends in a single spot a little way above and behind the spinners. The area from the spinners to the apex is dark brown ; and a little way below the apex are two silvery spots in a transverse line. In the form of the abdomen there is, as will be observed, a striking difference between this species and A. affinis. A single example of the adult male of this very distinct Spider was contained in a small collection of Spiders from the north-east of Madagascar, kindly given m e by Mr. R. H . Meade. Argyrodes minax is also nearly allied to A. ululans, Cambr. (an Amazons species) ; but in this latter the transverse cleft of the caput is much deeper, and the form of the segments into which the clypeus is divided is different; the form also of the abdomen is quite dissimilar. ARGYRODES AFFINIS, sp. n. (Plate XXX. figs. 16, 16 5, 16 c, 16 e). Adult male, length to the apex of the abdomen 2^ lines, and to the spinners 1|. This species is allied to Argyrodes obtusa and A. amplifrons, from both of which it m a y easily be distinguished by the greater elevation of the hinder part of the ocular area, as well as by the much wider separation of the hind central pair of eyes, and greater width of the upperside of the caput, the prominence of the lower lobe of which is not so bold nor so extended. The abdomen is also of a different form, and its pattern different. The figures detailing these characters will show at once the differences here noted. The cephalothorax is of a yellow-brown colour; the hinder part of the ocular area is a little raised, giving in profile a slightly angular form to the occiput. |