6 ARANEIDEA. 
Abdomen short, greatly elevated above, nearly globular, and greatly projecting over the base of the cephalo- 
thorax. Itis of a dull leaden-blackish hue, thickly spotted above and on the sides with small silvery spots, 
and along the middle of the hinder half is a double series of darker blackish spots arranged in five pairs, the 
two lines which they compose converging together a little as they approach the spinners. The underside 
is dark leaden-blackish, with a transverse band of similar spots to those on the upperside. The genital 
aperture is small and inconspicuous, but characteristic, but less thickly spotted. 
Hab. Panama, Bugaba (Champion). 
Two examples of this spider were contained in Mr. Champion’s collection from 
Chiriqui. In its short form A. debilis comes near the typical Meta, Koch. 
Argyroepeira curta, sp. n. 
Adult female, length slightly over 13 line. 
The whole of the fore part of this small species (including the cephalothorax, legs, palpi, falces, maxille, 
labium, and sternum) is of a yellowish hue, the region of the leg-joints rather suffused with brownish. 
The eyes are rather compactly grouped together, and seated on black spots. The interval (in an adult example) 
between the central pair of the posterior row is slightly greater than that between each and the lateral 
eye of the same row next to it, while in an immature, but rather larger, example it is smaller. The 
height of the clypeus is less than the diameter of one of the fore central pair of eyes. 
The /egs are furnished with a few very fine spines; their relative length appears to be 1, 2,4, 3, but they 
are much damaged in the only adult example examined. The form and structure of the mawille, labium, 
and sternum are normal, and the falces are tolerably long and strong, and prominent near their base in 
front. 
The abdomen is rather short and stout, but of a subcylindrical form, a little elevated or prominent above at the 
posterior extremity, which falls vertically to the spinners. The ground-colour is a dull yellowish-drab, 
marked with the ordinary silvery markings of this group, and after very much the same pattern; or it 
might be described as silvery on the sides and upperside, marked along the middle of the upperside with 
a broadish, somewhat tapering, yellow-drab band emitting several short oblique bars directed backwards 
on either side, two or three of these being near the hinder extremity. On each side of the almost vertical 
extremity is a conspicuous, nearly round, silvery patch. On the middle of the underside are three 
conspicuous silvery spots or blotches forming a transverse, somewhat curved or open-square stripe, the 
open side directed backwards. The genital aperture is characteristic in form, but small, reddish-brown, 
and inconspicuous. 
Hab. Panama, Bugaba (Champion). 
Argyroepeira fragilis, sp. n. 
Adult female, length slightly over 14 line. 
In form and general characters this spider is very like A. hortorum, Hentz, and some other closely allied 
species. It is, however, much smaller than A. hortorwm, and (unless the only example I have seen is an 
abnormally coloured one) much paler and less distinctly marked, though resembling it in pattern. 
The sides and upperside of the abdomen are densely silvery with a dull drab-yellow longitudinal central 
tapering stripe on the upperside, emitting three oblique lines of the same on either side, and a curved 
horizontal line of a similar colour on each side. The underside is dull drab-yellow, margined with a distinct 
silvery line which encloses the greater part of the space between the spinners and the genital aperture. 
This portion of structure is reddish-brown, tolerably conspicuous, and of characteristic form. 
The abdomen is subcylindric in form, the hinder extremity vertical. 
The colour of the whole of the fore part, including the cephalothorax, falces, legs, palpi, maxille, labium, and 
sternum, is a pale yellowish. 
The falces are strong and prominent at their base in front. 
