254 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



irregular spots in the middle. Spinnerets and gills dark brown ; epigynum is dark brown, 

 chitinous, with a cluster of yellowish hair on the atriolum, which is orange yellow ; it is 

 without a scapus, but has four platelike cells, two in front and two others at the sides. 



Distribution: I have specimens from islands of the Carribean Sea, received from Mr. 

 C. H. Townsend ; Dr. Marx has exarai)les fiom Louisiana and Texas; Koch described from 

 a Brazilian specimen. The species is therefore probably limited in the United States to our 

 Gulf Coast, and does not appear to be abundantly distributed therein. It no doubt abounds 

 throughout the Northern States of South America. 



No. 103. Nephila maculata (Fabricius). Plate XXIII, Fig. 4. 



1793. Aranea maculata, F.\bricius . . . Entomologia Systematica, ii., p. 425, No. 66. 

 1817. Aranea maculata, Leach .... Zoological Miscellany, ii., p. 134, pi. 110. 

 1890. Nephila maculata, Marx .... Catalogue, p. 551. 



Female: Total length, 27 mm.; abdomen, 19 mm. long, 6 mm. wide at the base, 3.5 

 to 4 mm. at the apex, 4 mm. in the middle ; cephalothorax, 8 mm. long, 6 mm. wide across 

 the corselet, 4 mm. at the face. Baron Walckenaer (Ins. Apt., II., page 98), in his descrip- 

 tion of Nephila (Epeira) fuscipes Koch, makes that species identical with Nephila maculata 

 of Leach and Fabricius. In this he errs, for the two species are very different, as one may 

 easily see by comparing Walckenaer's descriptions and the figure of Koch with Leach's 

 excellent figure. The drawings of N. maculata on Plate XXIII. were from an adult female ; 

 but after it had been completed I received from Dr. Marx several much larger specimens, 

 one of which has a body length of an inch and three-quarters, and measures 7.5 inches 

 (nearly two decimetres) from the tip of leg-I to the tip of leg-IV ; leg-I is four inches 

 long. These creatures strongly suggest the vigorous African and other tropical species of 

 this beautiful genus. 



Cephalothorax : Cordate ; corselet rounded at the edges, depressed in the centre at 

 the fosse, which is a deep lateral slit; rather flattened upon the top; the corselet grooves 

 indistinct or obliterated ; the cephalic suture sufficiently distinct ; the body color brown to 

 brownish yellow, covered thickly with golden yellow pubescence. The caput is narrowed at 

 the base, on which, a little in front of the fosse, are two low conical processes on either 

 side of the median line ; beyond them are two depressions in the surface of the caput, 

 which is brown, glossy, and provided less abundantly than the corselet with pubescence. 

 The head is raised above the corselet, well arched to the face; sternum shield shape, about 

 as wide as long; with sternal cones, one especially prominent in front of the labium, giving 

 the centre of the sternum an elevated appearance ; glossy brown ; indented at the edges ; 

 sjiarsely pubescent (though the hairs may be obliterated by the alcohol) ; the apex some- 

 what blunted or T-shaped, and bearing upon either side a slight conical eminence ; the 

 labium is long, two-thirds the length of the maxillse, rectangular at the base, which is 

 thicker than the obtusely triangular tip; the maxilla; are longer than wide, narrowed at 

 the base, curved upon the inner edges next the labium ; ovate at the tips, where the width 

 is about three-fifths the length ; the color of maxillse and labium dark brown. 



Eybs: Ocular quad on a rounded eminence more decided in front, leaving the rear 

 eyes situated at the base thereof; the quad is decidedly narrower in front than behind, but 

 the posterior width is equal to the length ; IMF slightly larger than IMR, separated by about 

 1.5 to 2 diameters; MR separated 2 to 2.5; side eyes upon prominent tubercles; SF but 

 little larger tlian SR, separated by something more than a radius; all the eyes of the group 

 amber yellow; SF separated from MF by 1.5 the area of the latter, or at least two times 

 or more the intervening space of the same ; the clypeus is rather high, from the margin to 

 MF being about three diameters of the latter; the front row very slightly recurved, almost 

 aligned; the longer rear row is procurved. 



Legs: In the specimen in hand the legs are much broken and the color greatly 

 modified by the alcohol. So far as reconstruction permits, the order shows 1, 2, 4, 3; the 

 color brown, and, judging by the pits, apparently well armed with strong spines and thickly 



