54 ARANEIDEA. 
advance of the anterior row. These eminences are not very large, and do not vary much in size, those of 
the hinder (or lower) row being the smallest. All have the larger fore part black, with a basal white 
rim or border, and the rest white. The rest of the upperside is mixed with black and white. Some 
examples are of a uniform dull cream-white, including the eleven prominences. Others are uniformly 
and thickly spotted with white on a blackish ground, and have a transverse black band across the fore 
part; a few have this black band edged with white on the sides, and in the middle two large well-defined 
round white spots. The sides are suffused with deep blackish-brown ; the underside is of the same colour, 
with a large central dull cream-white area, immediately in front of which is the genital process, which 
has a slender, sharp, tapering thorn-like process projecting backwards from the middle of its anterior 
margin. The spinners are dark brown encircled by a black area. 
The male (the only one I have seen) resembles the paler examples of the female above described; the legs, of 
course, being much longer in proportion, especially those of the first pair. 
In the characters of the tibie of the second pair there is a strong resemblance to those of MV. reticulata ; but 
the furcate prominence in the present species is nearer the posterior extremity of the joint, which is itself 
also less strong and enlarged, the terminal spines of the fork are also less strong and are of equal length, 
and those in advance of it are less strong. The anterior legs also in the present species are longer and 
more slender. The femora of the first two pairs of legs are marked underneath with two longitudinal 
(incomplete) dark brown lines; the tibise and metatarsi of the third and fourth pairs and the metatarsi of 
the first and second are also marked with a single longitudinal brown line above. The spines on the tibie 
of the first and second pairs are long and tolerably strong. The palpi closely resemble those of M. reticulata, 
but the spines and processes of the palpal organs are far less strong. 
This species may easily be distinguished from M. (Epeira) verrucosa, Hentz, by the much smaller and less pointed 
form of the prominences on the hinder part of the abdomen, and their different relative position, there 
being in WM. verrucosa only a single one behind instead of a curved row of three. There are thus only 
nine instead of eleven as in the present species. There are, however, two others in M. verrucosa (one on 
each side nearly halfway between the anterior prominence and the fore corner of the abdomen), but one 
of the most noticeable differences from Hentz’s spider is the much greater length and strength of the 
epigyne issuing from the genital process—in M. verrucosa this reaches backwards more than halfway to 
the spinners, and the process itself is of a different structure. 
Hab. Panama, Bugaba (Champion). 
Several examples of the female and one of the male were found by Mr. Champion at 
Bugaba, Chiriqui. 
Mahadiva reticulata, sp. n. 
Adult male, length 2 lines, length of abdomen slightly over 1 line, breadth 14 line. 
In general form and characters this species closely resembles M. (petra) verrucosa, Hentz, but may easily be 
distinguished by many well-marked specific characters. 
Cephalothorax brownish-yellow, marked largely with deep brown on the occiput, along the middle of the 
thorax, and the normal converging indentations; these latter suffusing more or less the whole sides of 
the thorax. 
Eyes of the central group forming a square, whose anterior side is longer than either of the others; the 
posterior pair are divided by less than an eye’s diameter; the anterior pair, which are much the largest, 
are divided by about, or perhaps less than, half a diameter from each other. Clypeus almost obsolete ; 
lateral eyes oblique, contiguous, and placed on a strongish tubercle. 
Legs moderately long and strong, those of the first two pairs much the longest and strongest, of pale dull 
yellowish hue, the femora and tibia of the first and second pairs strongly suffused and marked with deep 
olive-brownish, half the femora of the fourth and a portion of those of the third pairs being similarly 
suffused, and armed with spines of varied length and strength; the chief spines, in respect to definite 
position, are a longitudinal row in front of the femora of the first and second pairs, and some longer and 
stronger ones in a line beneath the tibiw of the first pair; others, longer but not symmetrically placed, 
are also on other parts of these joints. The tibie of the first pair are long, slightly bent, and a little 
