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Show 586 MR. H, O. FORBES ON A SPIDER FROM SUMATRA. [Dec 4, This milk-white patch is often met with in Monkeys, but on various parts of the heart, sometimes on the auricles, at others on the ventricles; but it is always due to pressure either from an enlarged gland, deformation of the thorax, pressure of an abscess, or some such cause. But the most convincing case occurred in a young Rhea, which was affected with rickets, so that the ribs yielded and allowed the heart to be compressed between the broad sternum and the vertebral column. In this case the anterior surfaces of the ventricles and the right auricle were covered with a large milk-white patch due to the pressure of the sternum. In conclusion I would remark that in merely recording the diseases of wild animals in confinement little is to be gained, but in elucidating the diseases of man Comparative Pathology will act as a side light of no mean power. 3. O n the Habits of Thomisus decipiens, a Spider from Sumatra. By H. O. FORBES, F.Z.S. [Eeceived November 20, 1883.] (Plate LI.) Having sent the specimen now exhibited to Mr. O. P. Cambridge for determination, he writes me : - " I believe it to be undescribed. Mr. Blackwall has described a tolerably near ally from the E. Indies, Thomisus tuberosus, Bl., and Karsch has described several which appear to belong to the same group from other quarters; but I do not think yours is the same species as either, even if of the same group, which, as Karsch gives no figures, is not certain. I have close allies from E. Indies and Ceylon, and also from S. Africa, none of which have as yet been described. The S.-African species is almost exactly similar in its colouring and manner of sitting, so as exactly to resemble the droppings of birds ; this was specially noted to me by the friend who sent the specimens to me, and I have just shortly noted it as an instance of protective resemblance in 'Spiders of Dorset,' vol. i. p. xxix of Introduction. * * *. This group ought to form a genus separate from Thomisus, but you might describe yours provisionally as a Thomisus." I therefore propose to give this interesting specimen the surname of Thomisus decipiens, in order to identify it with the account of its habits which I am now about to give. On June 25, 1881, in the forest near the village of Lampar, on the banks of the Moesi river in Sumatra, while m y " boys " were procuring for me some botanical specimens from a high tree, I was rather dreamily looking on the shrubs before me, when I became conscious of my eyes resting on a bird-excreta-marked leaf. H o w strange, I thought, it is, that I have never got another specimen of that curious Spider I found in Java which simulated a patch just like this ! I |