CHIRACANTHIUM.—ARGYROEPEIRA. 229 
Chiracanthium debile, sp. n. 
Adult female, length 24 lines. 
General character and structure normal. 
Cephalothorax brownish-yellow, obscurely suffused with a deeper hue on the sides and hinder part. 
Eyes subequal. Central quadrangle distinctly broader than long, and the fore side shortest. Eyes of posterior 
row equally separated, those of the hind-central pair by nearly two diameters’ interval. Anterior row 
slightly curved, the convexity of the curve directed forwards ; the posterior row equally curved in the 
opposite direction. Those of each lateral pair near together, but not contiguous. 
Legs moderate in length and strength, 1, 4, 2,3; spines few, excepting two beneath the hinder end of the 
metatarsi of the first pair, a few on those of the fourth pair, and several very small ones on the femora 
and tibiz of the third pair (possibly some may have been rubbed off), The tarsi end with a claw-tuft, 
and beneath their fore extremity is a thin scopula. Colour yellow. 
Falces strong, straight, very slightly projecting forwards, tapering ; of a yellow-brown hue, deepening to dark 
red-brown at their extremity. 
Masxille yellow-brown ; labium dark brown. 
Sternum yellow. 
Abdomen oval; colour dull yellow-brown, mottled with minute whitish points ; along the middle of the fore 
half of the upperside is a narrow, elongate, dull mouse-brown stripe, pointed behind, and there are two 
dusky spots on each lateral margin, forming a quadrangle whose anterior side is shortest ; the immediate 
surface surrounding this stripe is suffused with dull golden-yellow, and between it and the spinners is 
a large ill-defined patch of rusty yellowish. The genital aperture is rather large and conspicuous, but 
of simple form and blackish-red-brown colour. 
Hab. Panama, Veraguas (Boucard). 
ARGYROEPEIRA, Emerton (=Opas, Cambridge). 
Argyroepeira pulcherrima. 
Meta pulcherrima, Keys. Beitr. z. Kenntn. d. Orbitele, in Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, 1866, p. 832. 
Argyroepeira pulcherrima, Keys. Die Spinnen Amerikas (Epeiride), 4 Band, 1 Halfte, p. 325, t. 16. 
figg. 239, 240. 
Opas merens, Cambr. antea, p. 185, t. 23. figg. 6, 6 a-e. 
Recent examination and comparison of examples of Meta pulcherrima, Keys., named 
by Keyserling himself some years ago, prove it to be identical with Opas merens, 
Cambr. The species seems to be an exceedingly variable one, not only in respect to 
colours and markings, but also in respect to the spines on the legs; some of them have 
no trace of a spine, others have a few very slender ones, while a few specimens have 
them of arather stronger nature. The entire absence of spines in the types of Opas 
merens and O. lugens induced me to separate them from Argyroepeira, in the type of 
which the spines are well marked, to form the genus Opas. It appears to me, however, 
now, on a fresh comparison of its types with types of Argyroepeira, Keyserling’s named 
examples of A. pulcherrima, and others received from Messrs. Sarg (Guatemala) and 
H. H. Smith (Mexico), that the genus Opas cannot be sustained on that score, and must 
therefore be abandoned ; more especially as all the varieties of A. pulcherrima, as well 
as those of Argyroepeira (A. hortorum, Hentz, and other species), have the hinder 
femora furnished with the very peculiar hairs noted supra, p. 185, and figured on 
