OCR Text |
Show 412 REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE ON N E W DRASSIDES. [June 2, The eyes are all on black spots, in two transverse rows, slightly and equally curved away from each other, and occupying the entire width of the caput; they are of moderate size and not greatly unequal, those of the fore central pair being the largest; these are seated on slight tubercles, and separated from each other by an eye's diameter, being also nearer together than each is to the fore lateral on its side; those of the hind central pair are separated by very nearly two eyes' diameters ; they form a line a little longer than that formed 'by the fore central pair, and are rather nearer together than each is to the nearest hind lateral eye ; the eyes of each lateral pair are seated obliquely on a slight tubercle and are nearly contiguous to each other. The legs are very long, slender, sparingly furnished with hairs, and armed with a few long sessile spines; but most of these had been broken cff in the only example examined; their relative length is 1, 4, 2, 3, those of the first pair being considerably the longest; each tarsus ends with two curved claws, beneath which is a small compact tuft of hairs or scopula. The palpi are moderately long, but slender; the radial joint is cylindrical, and nearly of equal size throughout; if any thing, it rather exceeds in length double that of the cubital joint; and its fore extremity on the outer side is produced into a small, tapering, bluntish- pointed, curved apophysis. The digital joint is long and narrow, about equal in length to the radial joint; it is oval behind, constricted over the middle, whence it continues to the extremity in a nearly cylindrical form, being slightly enlarged towards the end, and the point obtusely subcorneal; the hinder extremity is produced backwards into a sharp-pointed, somewhat corneous apophysis peculiar to all males of this genus; this apophysis is rather sharply bent at its base, and its length is about one fourth of that of the digital joint; the fore half of the digital joint is pretty thickly clothed with shortish hairs. The palpal organs are simple, but rather prominent, and occupy the hinder half of the underside of the digital joint; these organs consist chiefly of a nearly circular corneous lobe, with a pale prominence at the fore extremity, and a black, tapering, sharp-pointed spine which, issuing from their outer side, curves round their hinder extremity and terminates in close contact with their inner side. The falces are subcorneal, straight, but projecting, moderately long, not very strong, a little prominent near their base in front, and furnished with bristly hairs near their extremities, chiefly on the inner sides and about the insertion of the fangs. The maxilla are normal; the labium, oblong, emarginate at its apex, and more than half the length of the maxillae. The abdomen is elongate-oval, more convex at the fore extremity, where it projects over the base of the cephalothorax, than behind, and falling off gradually (when looked at in profile) to the spinners ; it is of a pale luteous yellow colour, marked above and on the sides with tracings of small whitish cretaceous atoms; the spinners of the superior pair are tapering, 2-jointed, slenderer than the inferior pair, but double their length. |