OCR Text |
Show 1873.] SPIDERS FROM ST. HELENA. 221 1, 2, 4, 3; their colour is yellow, distinctly banded with dark yellow-brown, and furnished sparingly with hairs and a few, neither very long nor strong, black spines. The palpi are short and not very strong. The radial joint is double the length of the cubital, and of a clavate form, rather more produced at its extremity on the upper than on the lower side ; at the outer extremity a little in front is a long, curved, strong, tapering, black bristle, directed forwards and nearly in connexion with a group of a few less conspicuous bristly hairs. The cubital joint also has a tapering black bristle at the fore extremity of the upperside, but it is not nearly so strong a one as that on the radial joint; the digital joint is small but of the same length as tbe radial, and of a tapering, pointed oval form. The palpal organs are well developed, rather complex, with various corneous processes and prominently turned outwards; one small, red-brown, rather flattened but abruptly pointed process, separate from the general mass, appears to issue from the radial joint nearly beneath the bristle and group of hairs above mentioned. The palpi are similar in colour and markings to the legs. The falces are of a dark yellow-brown colour, rather long, strong, divergent at their extremities, and convexly prominent and massive towards their base in front: on the inner margin of the lower side at the extremity of each is a row of short teeth; and also towards the extremity of the inner margin of the upperside is a strong tooth-like prominence, divided into three small points at its extremity ; two of these points are stronger than the other, and from some points of view are the only ones visible, the third being placed beneath and a little below the others; following this tooth-like prominence in an oblique direction downwards are several small bluntish teeth of different sizes. The fangs are strong, and somewhat incrassated towards their articulation with the falces. The maxillae are rather long and strong, not inclined to the labium, and rather broadest at their extremities, where they are slightly rounded on the outer sides. The labium is short, broad, and semicircular, and with the maxillae of a dark yellowish-brown colour. The abdomen is oval, not very convex above, nor much projecting over the base of the cephalothorax; it is marked with black markings and white cretaceous spots on a dull whitey-brown ground ; the pattern is indistinct, but some angular bars or chevrons (running into blotches at their extremities) are visible on the hinder half of the upperside ; the sides have a large black patch forwards, followed behind by several slightly oblique black bars more or less distinct; along the underside runs a broad black-brown band, occupying nearly the whole of it. The female is larger than the male, to which it is similar in colour and markings, but differs in wanting the large trifid and other teeth on the front of the falces, having only one row along the inner margin of the lower side; these, however, are more numerous, longer, stronger, and sharper than the corresponding teeth in the |