DESCRIPTION OF GENERA AND SPECIES. 213 



with short pubescence; face wide, head raised above the corselet, from which it is sepa- 

 rated by a deep suture, wliich strongly delineates caput from corselet. A bright yellow 

 ribbon girdles the edge of the corselet, which for the rest is a reddish brown, more or less 

 decided in various specimens. The cordiform sternum is longer than wide, has decided 

 sternal cones ; is rather heavily pubescent ; color dark brown, with median band of yellow, 

 which is broadened into a rhomboid figure at tlie middle, and in front is yellow ; labium 

 large, subtriangular, and has a yellow tip like tlie maxillae, which are rounded, and as wide 

 as long, or even wider. 



Eyes: Fig. la. The quad on an elevated prominence; narrower in front than behind, 

 longest at the sides; MF separated by about 1.5 diameter; MR longer, and separated by 

 about one diameter; side eyes on decideil tubercles, almost contingent, almost equal in 

 size; MF separated from SF by more than twice their alignment, and about once tlieir 

 alignment from margin of clypeus ; front row shorter than rear and recurved, rear row 

 procurved. 



Lec;s : 1, 4, 3 2; color from dark brown to yellow, the final joints being brighter. 

 The femur has a wide median annulus, and the joints are tipped with darker color; well 

 armed with short hairs and stout bristles, arranged in longitudinal rows. Underneath, on 

 the femora particularly, the skin is extremely rugose, an efiect produced by the elevated 

 bases of the stumpy spinelike hairs. Palps colored as the legs ; mandibles strong and well 

 rounded at the base, but not projecting beyond the face. 



Abdomen': Rectangular ovate, flattened or even hollowed on the dorsum, except in 

 gravid females ; a series of thornlike conical spines set around the edges, of which the 

 basal are shorter than the middle, and tlio.se on the apical corners are double ; immediately 

 beneath each of the latter is a shorter spine ; color usually bright yellow, with a row of 

 four circular black pits on the base, two large ones at the middle, and others, again, on 

 the posterior ; the bases of spines dark brown or red, deepening into black at the sharp 

 points ; skin glossy, hard, sparsely pubescent. The sides are rugose, streaked with about 

 four longitudinal rows of yellow, alternating with brown bands, and thickly covered with 

 short hairs, with brown circular pits. The spinnerets are so far underneath the abdomen 

 as to give it a conical or pyramidal shape ; are dark brown or blackish ; venter pattern 

 yellow, mottled with brown ; the epigynum (Fig. 2a) is dark brown in color, tipped with 

 yellow, with a prominent scapus, wide at the base and narrowing to a rounded spooned 

 tip. The specimens of this spider vary much in color, apparently according to age. In 

 some the head and dorsum of the corselet are orange yellow, with a median band of 

 brown, and a broad circular belt of brown next below and adjoining the marginal band of 

 yellow ; the legs, in such specimens, become yellow, with brown annuli, not only at the 

 ends of the joints but in the middle thereof. The dorsal spines also differ in length, and 

 the abdomen varies slightly in color. Where specimens have been long in alcohol the 

 circular pits or spots above alluded to appear in marked prominence, and are arranged 

 laterally across the dorsum and between the apical spines, and again in rows passing from 

 the dorsum to the spinnerets, underneath the venter. 



Distribution : I have collected along the entire Atlantic Coast of the United States, 

 and in the Blidille States. It inhabits the Gulf States, and probably the entire region east 

 of the Rocky Mountains. 



V 

 No. 68. Acrosoma reduvianum (Walckenaer). Plate XXIII, Figs, e, 7. 



1837. Pledana rediuiana, AValcke.\.\er . Ins. Apt., ii., 201 ; Abbot, G. S., No. 



1850. Epeira mitraia, Hestz J. B. S., vi., 22; Id., Sp. U. S., p. 125, xiv., 11. 



1884. Acrosoma niitrata, Emerton . . . N. E. Ep., p. 37, xxxviii., 9. 



1888. Acrosoma reduviana, McCooK . . Proceed. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., p. 5. 



1889. Acrosoma reduvianum, Marx . . Catalogue, p. 540. 



Female : Body length, 5 mm. ; abdomen, 4 mm. long, 3 mm. wide ; cephalothorax, 

 1.5 mm. to 2 mm. long, and 1 to 1.3 mm. wide. Specimens differ in size. The above measure- 

 ments are taken from one of the largest females. 



