OCR Text |
Show 194 ARACHNIDES. and white anteriorly. The abdomen, which forms a kind of pentagon, is speckled by the re.d, brown and white hairs which cover it, and edged laterally w1th brown; there are four or six impressed points on the middle of the back. The belly is whitish, and the legs are long, slender and reddish, with brown spots. This species is very common on trees, wooden partitions, walls, &c., where it remains as if glued, with the feet extended. If touched, it runs with astonishing rapidity, or falls to the ground supported by a thread. The cocoon is of a beautiful white, and contains about a hundred eggs, which arc yellow and free. The female places it in hollows of trees or clefts of posts, &c., exposed to the north, and carefully watches it. The other Philodromi, which, according to the method of M. Walckenaer, form several small groups, have the body, and some· times the chelicerre, proportionably longer. The abdomen is some. times pyriform or ovoid, and sometimes cylindrical. The second pair of legs and then the first or the fourth are the longest. Pltilodromus rombijeru1, Walck., Faun. Franc., Aran., VI, a, the male. Its body is three lines and a half in length and reddish; the second legs and tben the two last are the longest; sides of the thorax brown; the abdomen ovoid, with a black or brown lozenge-shaped spot above, bordered with white. Pltilodromus oblongus, Walck., lb., tab. ead., fig. 9. This species, as respects the relative proportion of the legs, and the disposition of the eyes, belongs to the same division; but the abdomen is longer and almost cylindrical or forming an elon· gated cone, with three brown longitudinal streaks and points on a yellowish ground, which is also the colour of the thorax. In the middle of the latter are two brown streaks forming an elongated V. These two species inhabit the environs of Paris. For the other, sec the Faune Fran~aise, from which we have extracted the preceding descriptions. THOMISUS, Walck. The Thomisi differ from the Philodromi in their chelicerre, which are smaller in proportion and cuneiform, and in their four posterior legs, which are evidently and even suddenly shorter than the pre· ceding ones. The lateral eyes are frequently situated on eminences, while those of the Philodromi are always sessile. Here also the two posterior lateral ones are further behind than the two that are inter· mediate on the same line, while in the Thomisi these four eyes are nearly on a level. PULMON ARliE. 19.i Thespect'e s· of this genus are those more particularly. designated of Crab-Spiders. The males frequently d1ffer greatly by the name h r males in colout· and are much smaller. from t e 'e · · d r b r f them all exotic( 1 ), have thetr eyes arrange 1our y 1our Some o vers' e and almost parallel h· nes, the poster1· 0r o f wh1· ch on two trans is the longest. h thers and the greater number, the ensemble of these eyes In t eo ' . . . t. a crescent the convex stde of whtch IS forwards and out-represen s ' wards. Thomisus globosua; .Branea globoaa, · t · Fa b.; .!iranea ~rregu arts, Panz., Faun. Insect. Germ. fascic. LXXIV, tab. xx, female; Walck., Faun. Franc., Aran., VI, 4. Three lines long; black; abdomen globular; red or yellowish all round the back. . . Tlwmisus cristatus; Clerck, Aran. Suec., pl. 6, tab. v1, s1ze of the preceding; body grey-reddish, sometimes brown, with scattered hairs; feet with small spines; lateral eyes largest and placed on a tubercle; a transYerse yellowish stripe on the front of the thorax; two others of the same colour on the back forming a V; abdomen rounded, and a yellowish ban? on the middle of the back with three indentations on each s1de. A common species frequently observed on the ground. Thomisus citreus; .llranea citrea, De Geer; Schreff. Icon. Insect., tab. xix, 13. A lemon yellow, with a large abdomen wider behind; two red or saffron coloured streaks or spots are frequently observed on the back. On flowers(2). A subgenus established by M. W alckenaer, under the name of SroRENA but which is yet but imperfectly known, should apparently terminat~ this section and lead to Oxyopes, which are as nearly allied to the Crab-Spiders as to the Citigradre. The Storenre have their jaws inclined on the ligula, which is nearly of the same length, and forms an elongated triangle; the chelicerre are conical; the two anterior legs, and then the second, longest; the two following ones longer than the last. The eyes are arranged in three transverse line.s, 2, 41 2; the posteriot·, with the two intermediate ones ofthe second hnes, form a small square, and the two anterior ones are distant(3). Other Aranere whose eyes, always eight in number, extend more (1} Thomisus Lamarck, Lat., a species allied to the .B.ranea nobi.lis, Fab .. ;-T. eanceridut, Walck., ejusd. ;-T. leucosia; .B.ranea regia.'2 Fab.;-T. plagtmu8;- T. pinnotherea. (2) See the Tab. des Aran., Walck.; the F'aune Franc., Id., and the Ann. ~es Sc. Phys., for the Spanish species described by M. Dufour, see also Nouv · DJct. d'lli~t. Nat. second edition, article Thomise. (3) See Tab. des Aran., Walckenaer, IX, 85, 86. |