20 ARANEIDEA. 
The first two pairs of legs are considerably the strongest, and the second pair is much longer than the 
fourth. The eyes of the hind central pair are almost contiguous to each other. 
The palpi are short ; the palpal bulb is large ; the palpal organs are prominent, tolerably complex, with spines and 
corneous processes; and the digital joint has a strong, deep, black-bistre-brown, curved, tapering, but 
obtusely pointed, corneous process at its base on the outer side. 
Hab. Guatemata, Saviexptr, between Dolores and Chapallal, Cahabon (Sarg). 
Females and immature males, and one adult male, were found by Mr. Sarg near Dolores 
and at Saviexptr; females also at Cahabon. Count Keyserling thinks this species should 
be placed in the genus Nephila; but after careful consideration it seems to me not to 
differ generically from Epeira, and to lack the chief characteristics of Nephila. 
Epeira passiva, sp. n. 
Adult female, length 2 lines. 
The cephalothorax has the thoracic portion much elevated, with a long slope to the eyes and a very abrupt 
posterior slope; its colour, as also that of the falces, legs, palpi, sternum, and labium, is a bright orange- 
yellow, the tibie and tarsi in some examples being slightly clouded with dusky. The cephalothorax is 
bisected by a dusky blackish longitudinal line, which is strongest near the hind central eyes. 
The eyes are of moderate size, in three well, but not very widely, separated groups, forming a narrow trans- 
verse-oval figure, removed from the lower margin of the clypeus by scarcely a fore central eye’s diameter. 
The four central eyes form a square, the hinder pair being slightly the largest ; the eyes of each lateral 
pair are very small, contiguous to each other, and seated a little obliquely on a small tubercle. 
The legs are rather short, tolerably strong, tapering, and armed, chiefly on the tibie and metatarsi, with 
longish strong black spines. The relative length of the legs is apparently 1, 2, 4, 3, but the difference 
is not very great. 
The sternum in some examples has a dusky blackish border, and the maaille and labiwm are sometimes suffused 
with the same hue. 
The abdomen is of a rather elongate-oval form, somewhat bluntly pointed at its fore extremity, which projects 
greatly over the thorax. It is of a yellowish-brown colour above and on the sides, and of a paler hue 
underneath ; the upperside has a long, somewhat oblong-shaped longitudinal black marking, reaching 
from near its fore extremity (where it is somewhat pointed) to a little above the spinners, where it is 
truncated. Near the fore extremity of this black marking are two rather long, slightly curved, oblique, 
divergent or opposed, white stripes, and behind this, towards the spinners, are one or two transverse pairs 
of white spots. In one or two examples the black marking is bordered with white spots or broken 
patches ; in some others the black marking is of a dark yellow-brown, bordered and crossed transversely 
with black. The sides of the abdomen are marked more or less conspicuously with irregular longitudinal 
white and black markings ; and on the underside, on each side near the spinners, is a small bright white 
spot. The spinners are short, compact, black, and immediately above them is a series of transverse folds 
of the epidermis, decreasing in size to almost a point; close above them the last three of these folds look 
like a sort of segmented flap or continuation of the abdominal cuticle. The genital process is very small 
and inconspicuous. 
Hab. GuatEMALA, Cahabon, San Juan Chamelco, Tactic, on the upper road to Chi- 
chochoc, Laguna de los Coheteros, Coban (Sarg). 
Specimens in Mr. Sarg’s Guatemalan collection are labelled as from Cahabon 
(spinning a circular web on bushes), Coban, San Juan Chamelco, and other localities 
above mentioned. A note of Mr. Sarg’s says: “The cephalothorax burnt-sienna-red, 
legs the same ; abdomen burnt-sienna with a large patch of sepia down the centre, the 
markings on this Roman ochre ;” this shows how little the colour of specimens preserved 
in spirit can be depended upon. All the examples received are females. 
