347 



DESCRIPTIONS OF SOME NEW ARANEID^ OF NEW 

 SOUTH WALES. No. 5. 



By W. J. Rainbow. 



(Plates xxii.-xxiii.) 



Family EPEIRIDvE. 



Genus N e p h i l a, Leach. 



Nephila Fletcheri, sp.nov. 



(Plate XXII. figs. 1, la.) 



9- Cephalothorax, 8 mm. long, 5 mm. broad; abdomen, 12 mm. 

 long, 6 mm. broad. 



Cephalothorax dark mahogany-brown, thickly clothed with 

 hoary hairs; caput elevated, rounded on sides and upper part, 

 deeply compressed at junction of cephalic and thoracic segments, 

 forming deep, sublateral indentations; these latter only thinly 

 furnished with short, hoary hairs; at posterior extremity of 

 cephalic segment there are two coniform tubercles of dark 

 mahogany colour. CI y pens broad, moderately convex, clothed 

 w4th hoary pul^escence, indented laterally; a deep, broad, trans- 

 verse groove at centre; indentations and grooves sparingly pubes- 

 cent. Marginal, hand narrow, fringed with hoary hairs. 



Eyes of an opaline tint, placed on dark rings; the four cential 

 eyes are seated on a moderately convex eminence, and form an 

 almost quadrangular tigure; of these- the front pair are somewhat 

 the smallest, and are separated from each other by about twice 

 their individual diameter; the posterior pair are also divided l)y 

 a distance equal to twice their individual diameter; the lateral 

 pairs are much the smallest, and are placed obliquely on small 

 tubercles, Vjut are not contiguous. 



