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, whicli project over the face; separated by about 1.5 diameter; 

 legs in size than MR, which are separated by at least 1..5 diameter. Side eyes on tubercles ; 

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

 and SF is but little, if any, greater than tliat between MF; the space laetween MR and 

 SR, on the contrary, is much greater than between MR ; the front row is slightly procurved, 

 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 face and 

 maxill.e is yellow. 



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, ftiottled 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 gravid 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 

 lilack 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 

 distill 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 the 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 witli many 

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

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

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

 alothorax, steeply elevated above 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 tibiie slightly 

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

 bristles. The males are very small, but roughly resemble the female, the abdomen com- 

 monly lacking the pointed dorsal cones. 



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



1850. Gasteracantha pallida, Koch C. . Die Arachn., xi., p. 60, pi. 374, Fig. 881. 



1889. Gasteracantha pallida, M.\kx . . Catalogue, p. 539. 

 Female: Total length, 6 mm.; cephalothorax, 2.75 mm. long, 2.5 wide across 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. 



Cephalothorax : Corselet quite concealed by the overhanging base of the abdomen, is 

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

 caput to the base. The head rises so prominently as to hide the corselet when viewed in 

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

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



