OCR Text |
Show 338 REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE ON SPIDERS [Apr. 20, The legs are of normal character, long and slender, 1, 2, 4, 3, and furnished only with fine hairs. The transverse cleft dividing the two lobes of the caput is placed as nearly as possible halfway between the hind central eyes and the prominent extremity of the lower lobe. The palpi are short, and similar in colour to the legs ; the cubital joint is curved, clavate, and perceptibly longer than the radial, which, like that of other species, is broad in front. The digital joint is of moderate size, oval, dark yellow-brown in colour. The palpal organs are simple, compact, and very like those of several other species. The abdomen has its posterior portion drawn out into a long tapering form ; there is a small angular prominence on each side, a little more than halfway to the apex, which last is obtusely pointed and depressed, or a little bent downwards. This downward bend is probably a characteristic of the species, though very possibly not equally strongly marked in all individuals; it is very perceptible in all the examples I have examined (two adult and one young male, and one adult female). The colour of the abdomen is yellow-brown, mostly covered with brilliant and closely united silvery spot?, leaving (in the male) an elongate, central tapering stripe on the upperside. The lower part of the sides, as well as the underside, are nearly free from silvery spots; two, however, are tolerably conspicuous in a transverse line on the hinder part, a little way above the spinners. In the female the abdomen is shorter, the angular prominence on each side stronger, and it is more completely covered with silvery-spots ; the disposition, however, of those on the upperside leaves a rather distinct pattern (represented in fig. 16, d) ; probably there would be various differences in this in different examples. The only female that has come under m y notice was considerably smaller than the "male. Four examples were contained in a collection of Spiders made for m e on the Parana, Brazil, by Mr. H. Rogers, some years ago. ARGYRODES OBTUSA, sp. n. (Plate XXX. fig. 17.) Adult male, length to the apex of the abdomen 1\ line, to the spinners rather less than 1 line. In this very pretty and curious little Spider, the upper part of the caput is not elevated or drawn out beyond the normal extent, hut the whole of the lower part is produced into a very large, obtuse, rounded lobe or prominence divided by a short but distinct cleft or perforation from the upper part of the caput; when looked at from in front, the middle of the upper part of this prominence is slightly notched or cleft. The colour of the cephalothorax is pale yellow-brown, that of the legs and palpi being of a rather paler hue. The legs in the examples examined were much damaged ; but they appeared to be very like those of other species of this genus, long, 1, 2, 4, 3, slender, and clothed only with very fine hairs, |