OCR Text |
Show 214 REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE O N [Mar. 4, near the fore extremity of which, on the inner side, there are one or two small, red-brown, corneous prominences. A n elongate portion of the epidermis on the fore part of the upperside of the abdomen has a smooth and somewhat corneous appearance, and is rather darker-coloured than the rest. Several examples of this species, which is allied to C. lutescens (Westr.), but quite distinct, were contained in the collection last received from Mr. Melliss. Genus CHEIRACANTHIUM. C H E I R A C A N T H I U M MELLISSII, sp. n. (Plate X X I V . fig. 4.) Adult male, length (exclusive of the falces) 5 lines. The cephalothorax of this fine and striking species is broad oval, rather roundly truncated before, constricted laterally near the fore margin, and moderately convex above; the normal grooves and indentations are not very strongly marked. Its colour (as well as that of the falces, maxillae, and sternum) is orange-yellow, glossy ; and it appeared to be wholly destitute of hairs. The width of the fore margin equals half the length of the cephalothorax. The eyes (eight in number, rather small, and not very unequal in size) are in three groups, rather widely separated from each other; the central one, of four eyes, forms a trapezoid, whose fore side is a little the shortest, and its transverse diameter shorter than the longitudinal ; the foremost pair of these eyes, which are the largest of the eight, are separated from each other by about an eye's diameter; those of each lateral pair are placed obliquely, and not quite contiguously to each other on a tubercle. The legs are long, moderately strong ; their relative length is 1, 4, 2, 3, those of the first pair being greatly the longest. They are of a yellow colour, furnished with hairs, some of which are very slender and erect, also with a few, not very strong, black spines. Each tarsus ends with two claws and a black claw-tuft. The palpi are rather long, slender, and similar in colour to the legs; the length of the humeral joint, which is considerably bent, is equal to that of the cubital and radial joints together, the latter being nearly three times the length of the cubital, and slightly curved ; it has a small, fine, sharp-pointed, red-brown apophysis at its outer fore extremity. The digital joint is small and narrow, being of the same length as the cubital, which it does not exceed in breadth, and its base on the outer side is continued backwards in a sharp-pointed spur, of no great length and running just above the radial apophysis; the palpal organs are small and simple, consisting of a somewhat circular lobe with a small, pale, curved spine in connexion with its upper surface. The falces are of great size and divergent, of a somewhat bent form, and enlarged on the outer sides near the base, as well as prominent underneath in an angular form ; at the angle is a strong tooth, followed forwards by a longitudinal series of five other teeth of less size ; along the lower margin by these teeth is a fringe of coarsish black hairs : the length of the falces equals that of the |