DESCRIPTION OF GENERA AND SPECIES. 209 



gibbous, somewhat longer than wide, obtusely triangular at the tips, which are yellow; the 

 bases a yellowish brown. 



Eyes : Fig. 8b. Ocular quad narrower in front than behind, sides decidedly longer 

 than rear; MF on tubercles, which project over the face: separated by about 1.5 diameter; 

 less in size than MR, which are separated by at least 1.5 diameter. Side eyes on tubercles; 

 SF, wliich are smaller, are at the liase thereof, and well in front. The space between MF 

 and SF is but little, if any, greater than that between MF ; the space between ^IR and 

 SR, on the contrary, is much greater than between JNIR ; the front row is slightly prociu-ved, 

 almost aligned ; the hind row, which is considerably longer, is much procurved ; clypeus 

 height at least 1.5 diameter MF. The eyes are on black bases; the color of the fece and 

 maxillas is jellow. 



Legs: 1, 2, 4, 3; stout for such a small species, well provided with bristles and spines; 

 color yellow, with dark annuli at tips and middle of joints; palps lighter yellow, with less 

 decided annuli ; mandibles yellow, mottled with brown, rather long, somewhat conical, 

 slightly retreating backward. 



Abdomen : A long oval, truncate at the base, but little arched upon the dorsum, except 

 with gi-avid females ; dorsum marked by prominent shoulder humps, and two smaller 

 tubercles on each side. The dorsal field is brown, relieved with metallic white, and has a 

 black shield shaped folium, scalloped upon the edges, and tipped with white marks in the 

 middle of the apical half; this part of the abdomen is arched to the spinnerets, which are 

 distal and blackish brown; the venter is blackish, mottled with silvery white or yellow; 

 the epigynum has a wide, shortened scapus (Fig. 8d), hollowed beneath like the half of a 

 bowl. 



Distribution: The Southern United States; collected in the District of Columbia, 

 Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, southward to Florida, and so along tlie Gulf Coast through 

 Georgia, Alabama, and New Orleans. 



Genus GASTERACANTHA, Latreille, 1831. 



This strongly marked genus is at once distinguished by the peculiar character of the 

 abdomen, which is broader than long, with a hard, glossy skin, punctuated with many 

 dimplelike depressions. The venter is subconical, and the spinnerets placed at the apex 

 thereof. In tlie female many of the species have a dorsal field prolonged into various 

 corneous, more or less pointed, tubercies. The head is wide, almost as wide as the ceph- 

 alothorax, steeply elevated al)ove the flattened corselet, and with hard, glossy skin. The 

 eyes are divided into three groups, as in Epeira, but the intervening spaces are relatively 

 much greater. The fourth leg is relatively longer than the others; the tibite slightly 

 curved ; ordinary spines are lacking, lint the legs are armored with long, aculeate, spinelike 

 bristles. The males are very small, liut roughly re.semble the female, the abdomen com- 

 monly lacking tlie pointed dorsal cones. 



No. 63. Gasteracantha pallida C. Koch. Plate XIV, Fig. 8. 



1850. Gastcracanlha pallida, Kocn C. . Die Arachn., xi., p. 60, pi. 374, Fig. 881. 

 1889. Gasteracantha pallida, Mars . . Catalogue, p. 539. 



Fem.\le: Total length, 6 mm.; cephalothorax, 2.75 mm. long, 2.5 wide acro.ss the face; 

 abdomen, 5.5 mm. long, 8.5 mm. wide across the middle, 4 mm. across the front, 3.5 mm. 

 across the dorsal apex. 



Cepiialotiior.^x : Corselet quite concealed by the overlianging base of the abdomen, is 

 rounded at the sides, flat and smooth on the dorsum, which slopes downward from the 

 caput to the ba.se. The head rises .so prominently as to hide the corselet when vie\ved in 

 front; the head is almost as wide in front as the cephalothorax; the forehead is liigh, the 

 distance from the sides to the vertex being considerably greater than from the margins of 



