OCR Text |
Show 1884.] NEW GENERA OF SPIDERS. 201 The above description (as well as that of Mr. Blackwall) has been made from the type, still in m y possession, received many years ago from the East Indies, though from what locality there I do not know. ORNITHOSCATOIDES CEYLONICA, sp. n. (Plate XV. fig. 3.) Adult female, length 5 lines; in some examples the length is no more than 4 lines. In general form and appearance this Spider nearly resembles the two preceding species, but it differs not only in colours and markings but also in several other important specific characters. The cephalothorax is slightly tuberculose, of a dull yellowish-brown hue, distinctly and completely margined with cream-yellow, from which some converging lines of the same colour run towards the thoracic junction. The two central eyes of the posterior row are further apart than each is from the lateral row on its side, and a similar observation applies to the two central eyes of the anterior row. The four central eyes form rather more nearly a square than the corresponding eyes in 0. decipiens, the anterior side being proportionately rather longer. The height of the clypeus is less than half that of the facial space, and the laterals are not only seated on slight tubercles, but between each of those pairs is a distinct spinous tubercular prominence or short horn, terminating with a short bristle. The falces are short, subcorneal, vertical, finely tuberculose in front, and of a whitish cream-colour. The palpi are similar in colour to the falces, excepting the digital joint, which is black-brown, blackest at the base. The legs aie moderately long, longer but less strong than in the two foregoing species, though possessing the same essential characters and relative proportions. They are of a dull cream-colour, the two fore pairs suffused or mottled above on the femora with pale yellow-brown ; the anterior portion of the tibiae (which are strongly bent), the metatarsi, and anterior part of the tarsi black ; at the base, however, of the upper side of the metatarsi is an irregular whitish cream-coloured marking, and the underside of that joint and of the metatarsi also is more or less marked irregularly with a similar colour. The spines on the tibiae and metatarsi of the first two pairs are very long and strong; the peculiar ones noted as on the upper side of the femora of the two foregoing species are noticeable in the present one also. The two posterior pairs of legs are more of a yellow-brownish hue marked with a paler colour, and also with whitish cream-colour, giving them a somewhat annulose appearance ; and there are some strongish spines on the tibiae and metatarsi. The exinguinal (or basal) joints of the two hinder pairs, and a portion of those of the second pair, have their undersides of a deep rich brown colour. The sternum is of a deep rich black-brown hue, with a large patch of cream-yellow at its fore extremity. PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1884, No. XIV. 14 |