OCR Text |
Show 1902.] NEW HARVEST-SPIDERS. 407 internal tubercular spines; tibia and tarsus with three pairs of long and strong spines. Legs with coxae tubercular, that of the 1st with about three strong blunt spines; coxae of 2nd and 4th pairs tubercular above ; trochanter tubercularly spinous, that of the 4th with two longish superior spines; femur of 1st with three spines in its proximal half below, of the 3rd with spinous tubercles posteriorly. Tarsal segments of 1st leg 5, of 2nd 13-15, of 3rd and 4th 4. 5 . Smaller and more thickly granular; ocular tubercle less tubercular; dorsal scute without the anterior three pairs of spines, the long spines shorter than in the male and preceded by a pair of low tubercular spines; no long spines on the free tergites, but the tubercles all longer and more spiniform than in the male (text-fig. 82, B). Palpi shorter, but otherwise similar to those of male. Distal protarsal segment of 1st leg thickened but strongly excavated below. Measurements in mm.:- 3 . Total length of body 7 ; of palp about 12; 1st leg about 15, of 2nd about 25, of 3rd 27, of 4th 24. Loc. Madagascar : Ambohimitombo, in the Tanala district (C.1. Forsyth Major, type J ); also Betsileo (Deans Coivan). The specimens from Betsileo are three in number, an adult and two subadult females, the latter differing from the former in the absence of the emargination at the extremity of the protarsus of the 1st leg. They are distinguished from the typical examples from Ambohimitombo by the shortness of the dorsal spines and tubercles, which are only about half as long as those of the female of the typical form of A . rostrata. I propose therefore to regard the Betsileo form as a subspecies which may be called A. rostrata subsp. cowani nov. A. rostrata certainly differs from A. armata Loman in the spine-armature of the dorsal surface, the dissimilarity between the sexes with regard to spine-armature, &c. It is noticeable that Loman makes no mention of the modification of the distal end of the protarsus of the 1st leg in either of the sexes of A. armata. Judging, too, by the measurements given of the appendages, A. armata is a much shorter-legged form than either of the species here described. The following are the leg-lengths in millim. of A. armata:- 1st leg 7*5, 2nd 11, 3rd 8'5, 4th 12. A c itm o n t ia m a j o r i , sp. n. (Text-fig. 83, A , p. 408.) <5 ? Colour more ruddy brown than the foregoing. Dorsal scute sparsely granular; ocular tubercle as high as in A. rostrata, but thicker at the base and less tubercular than in the male of that species; a pair of small spines on each side of the carapace near its fore border, in addition to the three projecting between and outside the mandibles , posteiioi area less elevated than in A. rostrata, and armed with two pairs of spines, the posterior long, the anterior short, directed obliquely |