156 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



labium subtriangular, and, like the maxillpe, dark brown, with yellow tips ; mandibles 

 colored as the cephalothorax, dark towards the fang, at which point also they narrow on 

 the inside ; clothed with white bristles. 



Eyes: Ocular quad, on a rounded prominence (Fig. 2b); MF decidedly larger than 

 MR, separated by about 1.5 diameter; at the same distance from the margin of the clypeus ; 

 length of the quad about equal to the front, the rear narrowest ; MR separated by about 

 their diameter. Side eyes upon tubercles, but hardly so pronounced relatively as the 

 central prominence. SF the larger; the two scarcely contingent. Clypeus 1.5 diameter; 

 MF high ; the front row is slightly recurved, almost aligned, and shorter than the rear row. 

 which is slightly procurved. 



Legs: 1, 2, 4, 3; moderately stout, heavily clothed with white liristles, and at points 

 with yellowish curved hairs, and provided with numerous strong white spines, set in dark 

 and well elevated sockets ; color, orange brown ; the femora somewhat darker, or pven 

 blackish. Palps like the legs, heavily armed with spines and bristles. One specimen of the 

 same species has bright orange legs, without decided annuli, but the femora of first, second, 

 and fourth legs marked with black bands, which cover three-fourths of the surface of the 

 first two and one-half of the fourth pair ; the femur of third leg is without the dark 

 bands, but has a slight median annulus. 



Abdomen : Subtriangular in shape, longer than broad, arched upon the dorsum, but 

 somewhat flattened upon the summit and rounding to the spinnerets, which are distal. It is 

 heavily clothed with simple white bristles with brown pits, which are clustered more closely 

 in a bushy tuft around the base ; numerous smaller curved bristles of dark color are scat- 

 tered over the entire doi-sal surface ; between these larger white ones and on the sides, 

 mostly placed together, are golden yellow short curved bristles, which considerably modify 

 the color. On one specimen, from San Domingo, the doreum is bright yellow, with Ijranch- 

 ing longitudinal lines from the middle to the apex ; the sides are marked with yellow. On 

 the specimen described the abdomen appears to have been a uniform yellow color, with a 

 darker cordate band or folium occupying the gi-eater part of the dorsum. The venter 

 (2a, 2c) is a broad subtriangular patch, shaped like an old fashioned chapeau, of yellow or 

 yellowish color, entirely girdled by an irregular ribbon of yellowish white ; on the chapeau 

 six dark or yellow spots are symmetrically arranged on either side of the long scapus. The 

 venter, like the rest of the spider, is covered with numerous bristles and bristlelike hairs; 

 along the edge of the gills these stand thickly and are white. Spinnerets dark orange; on 

 a specimen from Florida, bright orange. The epigynum is most remarkable for the length 

 of the scapus (2c), which reaches over the entire venter to the base of the spinnerets; it 

 is narrow and tapers neai-ly to a point, is without groove or spoon, but exceedingly rugose 

 and with a light line of haira along the median of the lower surface. The vulval porch is 

 scarcely wider than the base of the' scapus, and the portulie are not exposed to view. In 

 only one specimen (Florida) is this organ preserved intact, in two others it is broken off. 

 For this reason, in the description of this spider, as tirst given in the Proceedings of the 

 Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadel|iliia, I erred concerning the form of the epigynum 

 by describing the sjiecies from examples from which the long scapus had been Ijroken off. 

 The fourth specimen, which I subsequently found, was in perfect condition, and thus permits 

 me to correct this error. 



Distribution : I have three specimens in my possession, all females ; one from Florida 

 (Fig. 2); one from San Domingo, collected by the late "William H. Gabb; one from Swan 

 Island, Carribean Sea, from Mr. C. II. Townsend ; a fourth from the latter locality wa-s sent 

 by me to Dr. T. Thorell. From this showing the species would ap|iear to be limited to the 

 Gulf States and the tropical islands along the coast. It will proliably l>c found widely dis- 

 tributeil throughout the northern parts of South America. In general form it resembles closely 

 E. ravilla and E. bivariolata, but lacks the circular blisterlike alxlominal markings which 

 characterize E. bivariolata. The female specimen marked in the Marx I'ollections E. ravilla, 

 and so recognized by Count Keyserling, lacks about one moult of maturity, and the epigy- 

 num (Plate v., Fig. 7a) is so difi'erent in length and structure from that of E. balaustina as 

 drawn (Plate IV., Fig. 2c), that one doubts whether a final moult could overcome the difier- 



