| OCR Text |
Show 204 ON TWO NEW GENERA OF SPIDERS. [Mar. 18, could, however, discern four, and I feel little doubt but that these are the normal third minute pair. This genus is allied to Cryptothele, L. Koch, but differs essentially in the position of the eyes and form of the maxillae. It resembles Cryptothele in the concealment of the spinners. Dr. L. Koch says these are two in number. In the only example I have of Cryptothele I cannot discern any at all; while, as above noted, I perceive at least four in the present genus. It seems therefore possible that Cryptothele may have the normal number of six, or at any rate more than the two noted by Dr. L. Koch. REGILLUS ASPER, sp. nov. (Plate XV. fig. 5.) Female (not quite adult), length 1-| line. The whole Spider is of a yellow-brown hue, the legs palest. The cephalothorax, looked at in profile, has a strong dip or hollow curve between the ocular area and the thorax, and the normal indentations are strong ; about the middle of the thorax, which is rather raised, are two strongish tubercular prominences in a longitudinal line ; these probably were once surmounted by spines, though now broken off. A strong, curved, obtuse double spine issues forward, from near the middle of the ocular area, and there are two others below it, in a transverse line, longer but less strong. There are other spines on the clypeus (the height of which is less than half that of the facial space), and on other parts of the cephalothorax, but those specially noted are the most conspicuous. The surface of the cephalothorax is covered with short coarsish pubescence, and is marked by some darker brown markings roughly arranged in longitudinal rows. The eyes are seated on separate tubercles ; those of the anterior row are divided by as nearly as possible equal intervals of rather more than an eye's diameter, while the hind centrals are nearer together than each is to the hind-lateral eye on its side. The legs are pale yellow-brown, somewhat pubescent like the cephalothorax, armed as above noted in the generic diagnosis, and the femora are marked (chiefly on their undersides) with some distinct but broken dark-brown annuli. Thepalpi are pale yellow-brown, short; the digital joint somewhat tumid and ending with a simple (unpectinated), curved, spine-like claw. The abdomen projects a little over the base of the cephalothorax ; it is yellow-brown, marked along the middle of the upper side with some slightly darker roundish impressed normal spots in transverse pairs, and with an apical one at the middle of the fore extremity, thus forming two lines diverging from the middle of the fore margin backwards. Its spinous armature has been noted above in the generic description. A single example was received many years ago, from Ceylon, from Mr. G. H . K. Thwaites. |
