110 ARANEIDEA. 
bristly hairs, and towards the hinder part two or three longer ones of a somewhat flattened or blade- 
shape. The spinners are short, compact, and placed at the extremity of the produced portion of the 
abdomen. 
Hab. Mexico, Teapa in Tabasco (H. H. Smith). 
This spider is nearly allied to Episinus longipes, Keys. (a Peruvian species), but differs 
in not having the legs distinctly annulated, as well as in the markings of the cephalo- 
thorax and abdomen. | 
ARGIOPE, Audouin ex Savigny. 
Argiope personata, sp. n. 
Adult female, length 123 lines. 
Cephalothorax of ordinary form ; colour dull reddish-yellow ; ocular area black, with a small central yellowish 
spot ; on either side is a broad, broken, blackish, longitudinal, lateral band, not quite reaching the ocular 
area; from the thoracic indentation a blackish line runs forwards and meets the anterior extremity of the 
lateral bands, and behind the thoracic indentation the slope is also blackish. The surface of the cephalo- 
thorax is covered with short grey hairs or pubescence. 
The eyes are small and in the usual position; those of each lateral pair are seated on a strongish tubercle, and 
the fore-central pair are also on a strong prominence ; the four central eyes form a trapezoid whose length 
is about one half greater than its breadth, and its posterior side rather shorter than its anterior side. 
The hind-central pair are the smallest of the eight; those of each lateral pair are contiguous to each 
other and placed slightly obliquely. 
The legs are moderately long, strong, 1, 4, 2, 3, of a bright reddish-yellow, or orange, broadly and distinctly 
banded with black, and furnished with hairs and numerous short, black, not very strong spines. The 
yellow portions are clothed with grey pubescence. 
The palpi are similar in colour and armature to the legs. 
The falces are moderate in length and strength, their colour black, with patches of orange-yellow in front. 
The maaille are of normal form, yellowish,‘marked with black strongly but irregularly at the base and on the 
outer side. 
The labium is semicircular, black, with a reddish-yellow apex. 
Sternum oval, hollow-truncate in front, bright yellow, with a broad well-defined marginal black band. 
The abdomen is of rather oblong-oval form, squarely truncate in front and somewhat angularly prominent on 
each side, or corner, of the fore extremity; the posterior extremity is conically produced into a short 
caudiform elongation projecting well beyond the spinners. The upperside is of a pale yellowish-brown 
colour, darkest at the two extremities, strongly marked with transverse and oblique white bands and 
stripes ; these (probably) have a satiny or silvery hue in life. The three posterior bands are curviform 
and span the whole upperside; the next forwards is broken in the middle, and so also is the anterior one, 
which runs up in an angular point to the extremity of the lateral prominence on each side ; between the 
ends of these bands are shorter lateral ones. ‘The sides are yellowish, thickly streaked and marked with 
dark brown. The underside is black-brown, marked along the sides with cream-yellow somewhat con- 
nected patches ; some yellow spots, in pairs, occupy the median line from the genital process to the 
spinners, which are short, compact, and of a deep black-brown colour. The genital process, or epigyne, 
is long, black, rather narrow, and extends, almost in close contact with the abdominal surface, through the 
middle of a brightish yellow somewhat quadrate patch. 
Hab. Mexico, Acapulco (H. H. Smith). 
Mr. Smith notes that this spider “ makes a very large, strong, perpendicular, geome- 
trical web (often three feet in diameter), having four radiating, zigzag, opaque strips 
forming a St. Andrew’s Cross, and extending only one-third of the distance to the outer 
edge of the web.” 
