OCR Text |
Show 1899.] AND SPIDERS FROM TROPICAL WEST AFRICA. 883 black stripe, which on the sides of the abdomen breaks up into a fan-like arrangement of narrow black longitudinal stripes extending as far as tbe spinners; spinners black ; the lower surface of abdomen testaceous yellow. Structurally allied to P. nigriceps, but the ocular quadrangle wider as compared with its length ; legs distinctly shorter, the 1st less than four times as long as the carapace; length of carapace much greater than that of tibia of 1st leg and distinctly greater than patella and tibia of 4th ; tibia? and protarsi of 1st and 2nd legs distinctly spined below; abdomen about one third longer than wide, a long oval, not noticeably wider behind the middle. Measurements in millimetres.-Total length 21; length of carapace 7, of abdomen 14*5, width of abdomen 9*5; length of 1st leg 25, of 2nd 25, of 3rd 16, of 4th 17. Loc. Benito Biver (67. L. Bates). The previously described African species of this genus are:- P. heraldicus, Karsch, Zeits. ges. Naturwiss. li. p. 315, pl. viii. fig. 4(1878); Simon, Hist. Nat. Araignees, i. p. 1016, fig. 1077 (1895). From Zauzibar and Lake Tanganyika. [I have seen no specimens of this species, but it certainly differs from all those enumerated in the table below in having the upper-side of the abdomen black wdth yellow spots, instead of yellow with black spots.] P. sex-maculatus, Simon, in Donaldson Smith's ' Through Unknown African Countries,' p. 388 (1897). From Somaliland. P. pantherinus, Poc, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (7) ii. p. 445, pl. xiii. fig. 7 (1898). From Nyasalaud. The four Tropical African species of this handsome genus, represented in the British Museum by the typical examples, may be distinguished as follows :- a. Carapace, mandibles, labium, maxillas, and sternum jet-black; lower side of abdomen with a pair of broad black narrowly separated bands, which unite posteriorly nigriceps, sp. n. b. Carapace principally yellow or red, margined or spotted w;th black, and black in the ocular region; mandibles, maxillas, labium, and sternum principally or wholly yellow; abdomen without black bands on the middle of its ventral surface. a1. Carapace red or yellow, with a black margin and transverse black frontal stripe; mandibles externally black ; black abdominal spots large. a2. Femora of 1st and 2nd legs deep blackish green; the black margin of carapace extending right round beneath the clypeus but not joining the ocular stripe ; sides of abdomen ornamented with narrow branching stripes arranged longitudinally ; no black rings round the spinners below insiynis, sp. n. b2. Femora of 1st and 2nd legs clear yellow; black margin on carapace not extending on to face, |