DESCRIPTION OF GENERA AND SPECIES. 199 



from MF by more than the area of the latter; an oval tubercle marks either side above 

 the articulation of the mandibles, and the whole surface is granulated, the upper part of 

 the eye space containing a few warts. 



Legs: 1, 2, 4, 3; stout, especially at the femora, and narrowing at the tijis ; color 

 yellow, armed with yellowish short haire and bristles, but without sjjines ; patella wide, 

 rather flattened ; })ali)s colored and armed as legs ; mandibles conical, parallel, yellow, 

 covered with short hairs, and abundantly witli stifl' bristles upon the inside. 



Abdomen : Ovate, or irregular hemispliere, wider than long, much thickened at the 

 base ; dorsum arched, without shoulder humps ; no special folium, but flecks of brown 

 around the dark* muscular plates ; color yellow, reticulated lateral stripes on the sides ; 

 ventral pattern, a yellow band extending around the bases of the spinnerets ; the epigynum 

 has a wide atriolum, with a very short semicircular scapus extending between the portula?, 

 like a sliort flap. (Fig. 2a.) 



M.^le: Plate XII., Figs. 3, 3a. 3 mm. long; presents in general the characteristics of 

 the female, in the heart shaped form of the abdomen, wider than long, and in the elon- 

 gated vertex of the face. The forehead, indeed, is relatively higher in the female, and the 

 crest is divided into two simple cones. The legs are yellowish brown ; the abdomen pearly 

 yellow, with a double row of black spots, like muscular pits, arranged longitudinally on 

 either side of the median. The corselet is yellowish brown, and the face and forehead 

 yellow. The palpal digit is globular, brownish yellow. The legs are without spines, but 

 are provided with long bristles, and appear to have no special clasping apparatus. 



DiiSTRiBUTioN : New England ; District of Columbia. (Marx Collection.) 



Genus VERRUCOSA McCook, 1888. 



In this genus the cephalic suture is deeply marked ; the caput rather shortened and 

 much rounded at the sides, narrow ed at the base, elevated above the corselet ; the face 

 wide and full ; the sternum cordate, somewhat longer than wide ; the labium, maxillse, 

 and eyes as in Epeira. The abdomen is triangular ovate, flattened upon top, and the 

 ajHcal wall marked by rounded protuberances; the skin is hard and glossy; the epigynum, 

 in the typical species, with a long, narrow scapus extending nearly to the spinnerets. The 

 legs in order of length are 1, 2, 4, 3; stout; the spines long and bristlelike, with the 

 exception of a few at the articulation of the joints. 



Verrucosa differs from Epeira chiefly in the shape and elevation of the head, and the 

 peculiar character of the abdomen, with its flattened dorsum, tuberculated apical wall, some- 

 what hardened skin, and the aculeate and lengthened form of the epigynal scapus. The 

 acute spinous armature of the leg.s also differs from the stout, rather stubby character of 

 Epeiroid spines. The male has the general characteristics of the female as to the form of 

 tlie caput and abdomen. The tiliia is curved, much swollen at the apex, and provided 

 with a long, strong spur, whose point is armed with two spines. The jialpal digit is ovate, 

 and the cubital joint is curved. The spines are longer and witli stouter bases than those of 

 the female, and the sternum is relatively wider. 



I have felt justified in retaining for this genus the name publi.shed early in 1888,' in 

 my first studies of the manuscript drawings of John Abbot, revising the nomenclature of 

 some of Hentz's species. These results were accepted and embodied in his "Catalogue" by 

 Dr. George JIarx. In this Catalogue (page 541) he for the first time made public the 

 generic name " Mahadeva," which he attributes to Keyserling [in iitl.), and gives Hentz's 

 Epeira verrucosa as the type. In July, 1S89, Cambridge, in his Biologia Centrali-Americana, 

 page 53, adopts this name, credited to Keyserling, but changing the spelling to " Mahadiva." 

 In Keyserling's Spinnen Amerikas, part lY., Epeiridie, page 67, which was not issued until 

 1892, the genus is published as new, under the name used by Marx, and for the first time 



' Proceedings Academy Natural Sciences, Philadelphia. 



