| OCR Text |
Show 1873.] GENERA AND SPECIES OF ARANEIDEA. 125 these are seven in number, three on either side of the upper part the abdomen, and one pointing backwards at its binder extremity or summit; all of them are very short, in fact quite rudimentary, but each issuing from the summit of a somewhat coniform protuberance of the abdomen. When looked at in profile, the abdomen is of a somewhat subtriangular form, rather humped a little below the middle on its fore side. Tbe cephalothorax is of a dark blackish yellow-brown colour, the ocular portion strongly prominent, and its extreme point somewhat bent downwards ; there is a greater inequality in the size of the eyes than in P. brevispinosa, those of the fore central pair being considerably the largest; but their general position is the same. The legs are rather short, their relative length 4, 1, 2, 3 ; they are of a dull yellow colour and furnished with hairs and slender spinelike bristles. The palpi are very short, slender, and similar in colour to the legs. The falces, maxillee, and labium are paler in colour than the cephalothorax; the sternum is of a dull yellow tinged with orange, and its surface is covered with impressed dots or punctures. The abdomen projects greatly over the base of the cephalothorax, and is of a straw-yellow colour; its surface is thickly covered with round impressed dots ; and there are a few irregular patches of dark brown, mostly on the lower part of the sides ; besides these there are seven somewhat round brownish-yellow ones on the fore (or upper) part, and also seven on the hinder side, all symmetrically arranged. The adult male is much smaller than the female ; its caput is more produced and prominent in the ocular portion ; and there are a few conspicuous prominent spines on the upperside of the tibiee of the first pair of legs ; the spines on the abdomen are also of a rather more marked character, the protuberances of the abdomen from which they spring appearing to form part of the spine, more so at least than in the female. The palpi of the male are short; the radial joint is longer and stronger than the cubital, and of a somewhat subconical form, with a single row of bristles round the margin of its fore extremity, which is the broadest part of the joint; the digital joint is of moderate size, equalling in length both the radial and cubital joints together ; the palpal organs are well developed, moderately complex, and are margined with a slender black filiform spine. The colours and markings of both sexes are very nearly similar, the male having some blackish yellow-brown markings (not observed in the female) near the lateral edges of the hinder part of the upperside. The falces (in both male and female) have two sharp teeth contiguous to each other near their extremities on the inner side. An adult male and an adult and immature female were received from Mr. Thwaites, from Ceylon, in 1871. PHORONCIDIA TRISPINOSA, sp. n. (Plate XIV. fig. 9.) Female adult, length 1| line. This Spider may easily be distinguished from either of the foregoing bv the number of the spines ; the ocular portion of the caput is also |
