OCR Text |
Show 1899.] AND SPIDERS FROM TROPICAL WEST AFRICA. 853 diameter apart, anterior medians a little more than a diameter apart, distance between anterior and posterior medians less than a diameter; anterior line of eyes straight or nearly so; anterior medians less than their diameter from the edge of the clypeus. Legs longish, scantily spined, but furnished with long close-set bristles; the spines setiform ; 1st leg much longer than 4th. Abdomen flat above, heart-shaped, with rounded antero-lateral angles and anterior border, the posterior apex prolonged into a longish, stout " tail," which about equals the carapace in length ; spinners in the middle of the heart-shaped basal portion of the abdomen. Vulva with its basal vestibular portion not expanded, either laterally or posteriorly, at the base of the scape, which is long, slender, and slightly curled at the tip. Measurements in millimetres.-Total length 9 ; length of carapace 2*5, of abdomen 6*5, of abdomen without tail 4, width of abdomen 3*5 ; length of 1st leg 12, of 4th 8. Loc. Benito Eiver (67. L. Bates). A single adult female. This differs from all the Tropical African species of Araneus known to m e in having the ocular quadrangle approximately square, with the four eyes subequal, and the extremity of the abdomen produced into a longish caudal process. In both of these features it resembles the Burmese species A. thelurus (Thor.), but may be at once separated from it at least by the much greater length of the scape of the vulva. Genus CYRTOPHORA Sim. CYRTOPHORA CITRICOLA (Forsk.). Loc. Benito Biver (67. L. Bates). Widely distributed throughout Tropical Africa and Asia. CYRTOPHORA ANGOLENSIS (Brit. Capello). Epeira angolensis, Brit. Capello, J. Ac. Sci. Lisboa, i. p. 79, pl. ii. fig. 4 (1868). Epeira chinchoxensis, Karsch, Zeits. gesammt. Naturwiss. Iii. p. 333 (1879). Loc. Sierra Leone (Surg.-Capt. Clements); Benito Biver (67. L. Bates). Becorded by Brito Capello from the Bio Quilo. Karsch's specimens from Chinchoxo appear to m e to be specifically identical with those that Capello described. M . Simon (Hist. Nat. Araignees, i. p. 775, 1895) adds this species to the synonymy of C. citricola. But this is undoubtedly an error, 0. angolensis, according to m y determination, being distinguishable by the posteriorly pointed abdomen and wide head, with the lateral eyes far apart from the medians. The vulva is furnished with a distinct process. Three well-marked colour-varieties of this species are met with. |