| OCR Text |
Show 1873.] SPIDERS FROM ST. HELENA. 217 the height of the clypeus being very nearly half that of the facial space; the hinder row, which is the longest (looked at from in front), is strongly curved, the front one nearly straight. The eyes are not very unequal in size, the fore laterals being slightly the largest; the intervals between the eyes of each row respectively are as nearly as possible equal; the four central eyes form a trapezoid whose fore side is shorter than its hinder one, and the length of its sides intermediate between them. The legs are not very long nor very unequal in length, but moderately strong; their relative length is 1, 4, 2, 3, those of the fourth and second pairs being very nearly equal; they are of a pale brownish-yellow colour, broadly annulated with darker brown; they are furnished with hairs, and each tarsus ends with three claws ; there is also a calamistrum on the metatarsi of the fourth pair, situated rather on the inner side behind. The falces are long and strong ; each has a small flattish enlargement on the inner side near the extremity, armed with three small sharp teeth ; this enlargement is apparently formed by the excavation of the upperside of the falces at that part. The maxillee are long, strong, obliquely and roundly truncated at their extremities on the outer side, and slightly inclined towards the labium, which is about half the length of the maxillee, of an oblong form, and rather broader at its base than at its apex, where it is somewhat rounded. The falces are similar in colour to the cephalothorax ; the maxillae are similar to the legs and palpi; the labium is suffused with blackish brown, and the sternum, which is of a heart-shaped oval form, is slightly suffused with brown. The abdomen is oval, rounded, and rather bluff behind ; the ground-colour is a pale luteous yellow, and it is more or less irregularly marked all over with black streaks and markings ; among those on the upperside, near the middle, is a fairly defined cruciform marking, followed towards the spinners, in a longitudinal series, by several rather short, blunt-angular, transverse, black stripes. In front of the ordinary spinners is a broad transverse supernumerary one. Two adult females were contained in Mr. Melliss's St.-Helena collection. Genus T E G E N A R I A. TEGENARIA CIVILIS. Tegenaria civilis, Bl. Spid. Great Brit. & Ir. p. 166, pl. 12. fig. 107. Adults of both sexes were contained in the collection last received from Mr. Melliss ; St. Helena is thus another locality ascertained for this cosmopolitan species. TEGENARIA PROXIMA, sp. n. Tegenaria atrica, Cambr. Spiders of St. Helena, P. Z. S. 1869, p. 533. Adult male, length 3 lines. In size, colours, and markings this species nearly resembles |
