OCR Text |
Show 1881.] REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE ON NEW ARANEIDEA. 769 culations. The legs are furnished thinly with hairs, some of which are short and grey. The palpi are short ; the digital joint tumid and longer than the radial, which is also longer than the cubital. They are similar in colour to the legs. The falces are of great length, slender, and rather divergent at the extremities, which have also a backward bend; their length is about equal to that of the Spider itself; towards the base, on the upper side, is a strongish conical point or prominence. Their colour is similar to that of the cephalothorax, indistinctly but broadly banded with a deeper hue, furnished thinly with grey hairs, and armed on the inner sides throughout with a longitudinal series of denticulations increasing in strength from the base to the extremity, being exceedingly minute at the base, but rather long and strong at the beginning of the divergent portion, whence to the fang is a series of another kind with a more direct transverse or lateral direction, and giving a comb-like appearance. The fang is strong and much curved at its point. The maxilla? are similar in colour to the falces, and the laBium and sternum are of a darker hue ; the form of these parts is described in the generic characters given above. The abdomen, whose height is greater than its length, is yellow-brown above, much darker on the sides, the one being separated from the other by a bluntly dentated or zigzag line of short white hairs. Some indistinct markings formed by lines of white hairs are also visible on the upper side. The underside is dark brownish, variegated with bars and blotches of white hairs. The spinners are compactly grouped ; those of the inferior pair are two-jointed, and are the longest and much the strongest of the six. A single immature example of this most remarkable Spider, found in Madagascar, was kindly sent to me by Mr. T. Workman of Belfast, who has also permitted me to describe and figure it. It is of great interest, not only on account of its singularly elevated caput, but because the elevation is of a type quite distinct from any thing I have ever before met with. Some species of Walckenaera have the upper part of the caput elevated to a great height, and the eyes are (some or all) carried up with it; but in the present Spider not only the eyes but the falces also are carried up, necessitating the extraordinary development of the latter to enable them to meet and cooperate with the other parts of the mouth. These would otherwise have been left open and exposed, and the Spider itself would have been in danger of starvation, since the anterior extremities of the falces, with their fangs and teeth, are the main instruments for holding and compressing the Spider's prey, the juices of which flow thence into the mouth itself. I have no hesitation in founding a new genus on this Spider ; and very probably the future discovery of other, allied, species will necessitate the formation of a new family for them. At present I would place it in the family Theridiidae, in a separate group, near the genera Argyrodes, Latr., and Ariamnes, Thor. |