450 ARANEIDEA. 
In other cases the silken band lies in a straight line, interrupted in the middle, down 
the centre of the web. 
The genera represented in the Central-American fauna may be distinguished by the 
following characters :— 
GENERA. 
i. Central eyes of anterior row, in the female, much further from the 
laterals than from eath other. 
a. Vulva of female divided by a septum into a pair of equal concavities. 
1. Abdomen scalloped or lobate on the sides . . . . - - + + ARGYOPE, Aud. in Sav. 
2. Abdomen more or less evenly rounded on the sides. . . . . Metarcyope, gen. nov. 
b. Vulva of female not divided by a septum, but presenting a long, 
broad, convex process, its apex compressed-spatuliform, with 
recurved margins, having a single circular cavity, or orifice, at 
its base beneath . . . . ee ee eee ee ee) 6 Miranpa, C. L. Koch. 
ii. Eyes of anterior row almost equidistant . . . . . . - . + + Gua, C. L. Koch. 
ARGYOPE. 
Argyope, Audouin, in Savigny’s Egypt, Araign. (1st edit.) p. 121 (1826). 
Type A. sericea (Oliv., 1789) = A. lobata (Pallas, 1782) (sec. auct.). Europe. 
Although the type of Argyope differs somewhat from the A. argentata of the Western 
Hemisphere, I have left the latter for the present in the same genus. It can be at 
once recognized from other Central-American forms by the lobate margin of the 
abdomen, and by the form of the vulval orifice, which is divided into two lateral 
concavites by a broader or narrower septum. ‘The males of the two species recorded 
may be separated as follows :— 
Males. 
a. Spiraloid spine of palpal bulb constricted towards the apex, with a 
conspicuous barb on each side. No sharp cusp projecting in the 
middle of the spiral curve ee ee 
6. Spiraloid spine not constricted towards the apex, but with a low cusp in 
the middle and a small barbule near the apex. <A sharp black cusp 
projects from the middle of the spiral curve . . . . . . . . . blanda,O.P.-Cambr. 
argentata, Fabr. 
1. Argyope argentata. (Tab. XLII. figg. 25, g; 26, 26 a-c, 2.) 
Aranea argentata, Fabr. Ent. Syst. 11. p. 414’. 
Epeira argentata, Walck. Ins. Apt. ii. p. 115, t. 18. fig. 8 (2). 
Argiope argentata, McCook, Amer. Spid. iii. p. 220, t. 16. figg. 2, 2a-f(¢), 1, lad (¢)’; 
Banks, Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. (3) i. p. 257*; Marx, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. xii. p. 541°; Simon, 
P. Z. S. 1897, p. 873°. 
