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Show 1873.] DR. J. ANDERSON ON ASIATIC SHREWS. 227 furnished above with white hairs; the humeral joints are strong. The radial is rather shorter than the cubital, but stronger, and has an apophysis beneath its anterior extremity : this apophysis was not easy to be seen satisfactorily; but it appeared to be pointed and a little curved or bent outwards at its extremity. The digital joint exceeds in length the radial and cubital together. The palpal organs are simple, and neither highly developed nor prominent, being almost concealed by the hairs on the margins of the digital joint; they appeared to consist merely of an oval, flattish, deep-black-brown, corneous lobe. The falces are rather long, moderately strong, of a somewhat flattened form, projecting forwards and a little divergent from each other; their colour is a dark reddish yellow-brown. The abdomen is small, oval, and projects but slightly over the base of the cephalothorax ; it is thinly furnished with hairs and is of a yellow-brown colour, marked and mottled with blackish brown ; but no distinct pattern was traceable; some of the hairs on the hinder half of the upperside are white and appear as if they would form, when uninjured, four indistinct spots in a quadrangle with two short transverse curved lines between them. The female is larger than the male, but resembles it in colours and markings : it was recorded (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1869, p. 543) as S. illigeri (Sav.) ; but the male found in the more recent collection received from Mr. Melliss leads me to believe it to be distinct from that species. EXPLANATION OF PLATE XXIV. Fig. 1. Filistata condita ? . Upperside of abdomen. 2. Gnaphosa lugubris $. a, b, palpus, in two positions. .3. Clubiona dubia $. Palpus. 4. Cheiracanthium mellissii $ . a, $ , slightly enlarged; b, cephalothorax and falces, in profile; c, fore part of caput, from behind; d, palpus; /, portion of ditto, more magnified; e, natural length of Spider. 5. Cheiracanthium planum <J . a, profile of cephalothorax and falces; b, palpus; d, natural length of Spider. 6. Amaurobius crucifer <j>. a, profile; b, upperside; c, caput and falces, from the front; d, natural length of Spider. 2. On the Species and Dentition of the Southern Asiatic Shrews, preliminary to a Monograph of the Group. By JOHN ANDERSON, M.D., Calcutta. [Received December 11, 1872.] An examination of the Shrews in tbe Indian Museum, Calcutta, convinces m e that our knowlege regarding the Indian species is very defective. This remark seems to be equally applicable to the species 15* |