OCR Text |
Show 1899.] AND SPIDERS FROM TROPICAL WEST AFRICA. 871 This species is apparently nearly allied to Phoneutria capulina Karsch, the colour of the mandibles being apparently the same in the two species and both of them possessing the beard-like fringe of hair on the lower side of the legs, upon which Karsch lays so much stress. Fortunately the question can be without difficulty settled by a comparison between the palpus of G. capulinus aud the figures of that of G. burtoni which Mr. Cambridge has published. CTENUS OCCIDENTALIS F. Cambr. Ctenus occidentalis, F. Cambr. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1898, p. 22. Loc. W . Africa (without further history). CTENUS KINGSLEYI F. Cambr. Ctenus kingsleyi, F. Cambr. Proc Zool. Soc 1898, p. 21, pl. iii. fig. 6. Loc. Cameroons (Miss Kingsley). CTENUS SCOPULATUS, sp. n. (Plate LVII. fig. 25.) Colour. Carapace deep mahogany, clothed with short reddish-brown hairs, hairs on the face and upper half of mandible deep carmine; mandibles shining black: legs same colour as carapace above; femora redder below, especially the base of the 1st and 2nd in front; scopula? greyish black. Abdomen indistinctly variegated black and red above, the sides especially in front clothed with bright reddish hairs interspersed with longer hairs of a paler tint; the lower surface behind the epigastric fold entirely covered with a broad velvety-black field, narrowed and oval behind and sharply marked off at the sides by the red hairs of the lateral surface and in front by the reddish-yellow epigastric region ; sternum and coxa? blackish brown. Carapace longitudinally horizontal above, a little shorter than palp measured from base of femur, longer than patella and tibia or than tarsus and protarsus of 3rd leg, a little shorter than 4th protarsus, just about equal to protarsus and tarsus of 2nd ; its width just about equal to tibia of 2nd and of 4th; ocular quadrangle longer than wide, narrowed in front, exceeding height of clypeus, which nearly equals three diameters of anterior median eyes. Legs 4, 1, 2, 3; tibiae of 1st and 2nd with 5 pairs of inferior spines, not spined above, of 3rd and 4th with 3 pairs and 2 anterior and 2 posterior spines aud 3 superior spines ; patellae of 1st and 2nd unspined, of 3rd aud 4th with 1 anterior and 1 posterior spine ; tibiae of 1st and 2nd scopulate below, of 3rd scopulate below at its distal end ; protarsus of 4th scopulate except in the basal fourth of its length; protarsi of 1st and 2nd without inferior apical spine. Vulva consisting of a reddish, heart-shaped, convex, median sclerite, with a small shining black dentiform process on each side of its posterior extremity. |