| OCR Text |
Show 1874.] REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE ON NEW DRASSIDES. 397 The female resembles the male in colours and markings; the relative length of the spinners, however, differs, those of the superior pair being longer and stronger in proportion to the inferior ones, the length of the former being but a very little less than ihat of the latter; the genital aperture is not very large, but of very simple though characteristic form (vide Plate LI I. fig. 21, c). An adult example of each sex was contained in the collection of Spiders received from Bombay from Major Julian Hobson, Staff Corps. DRASSUS VULPINUS, sp. n. (Plate LII. fig. 22.) Adult female, length 5| lines. This fine species belongs to the group which includes D. sericeus (Bl.), to which it is nearly allied. The cephalothorax (which is of ordinary form), and also the legs and palpi, are of a foxy yellow-brown, clothed with fine silky ad-pressed hairs or pubescence of a yellowish-grey colour. The falces, maxilla, labium, and sternum (all of which are of ordinary form) are darker-coloured than the cephalothorax, and furnished, in addition, with black prominent bristly hairs. The abdomen is of a dull brownish-yellow colour, thickly clothed with silky yellow-grey hairs, mixed with coarser black ones. The eyes are in two curved rows; the hinder row is the most strongly curved, the curve directed backwards; and the front row, looked at from above and behind, is curved the same way, but less strongly ; the lateral eyes (on either side) are separated from each other by an interval about equal to the diameter of the fore lateral eye; the eyes of the hind central pair are bright pearly white, oval, oblique, and rather nearer together than each is to the lateral on its side; those of the fore central pair are round and about half of an eye's diameter apart, each being also separated by an equal distance from the lateral on its side. The legs are tolerably long and strong; relative length 4, 1,2, 3 ; and besides a yellow-grey pubescence, they are furnished with other hairs and strong spines, the latter mostly on those of the two hinder pairs. Each tarsus ends with two curved pectinated claws, beneath which is a strong scopula extending over the lower side of the greater part of the tarsal joint. The palpi are short, strong, and similar in colour and armature to the legs ; the hairs at the end are rather dense and prevented my seeing the terminal claw, which, if present, must be very short. The abdomen is oval, and projects well over the base of the cephalothorax ; its colour and clothing have been remarked upon above. The spinners are yellow-brown in colour, longish, and prominent; those of the inferior pair are the strongest and rather the largest. The genital aperture is of moderate size and simple form, with a deep red-brown corneous margin (vide Plate LII. fig. 22). A single adult example of the female was found by myself in an old building at Cairo in April 1864. |
