628 



DESCRIPTIONS OF SOME NEW AEANEID^ OF NEW 

 SOUTH WALES. No. 7. 



By W. J. Rainbow. 

 (Entomologist to the Australian Museum). 



(Plate XLix., figs. 1, 2, 3, 3n.) 



The j^resent paper contains descriptions of three species new to 

 science, and which, taken collectively, must form a valuable 

 addition to our knowledge of the Araneidan fauna of this con- 

 tinent. Of these, EjJeira coronata is exceedingly interesting on 

 account of its extraordinary structure; the second — Pachygnatlta 

 tiiiperba, — one of a small collection taken 1)y Mr. Ogilby during 

 an excursion to Cooma, is a remarkably beautiful spider, the 

 silvery granules that decorate the superior surface of the abdomen 

 appearing like jewels against the back-ground of dai'k brown. 

 The most important of the present series, however, is a new 

 species of "flying" spider, for which I propose the name ^<<?fs 

 sp/^tu/ens. In 1874 the Rev. O. P. Cambridge, E.Z.S., described 

 and figured in " Annals and Magazine of Natural Histoiy,"*' an 

 Attid for which he proposed the name A. volans. From that 

 singular spider the one now described, although possessing a 

 remarkable aflinity, is nevei'theless sufliciently distinct to warrant 

 the creation of a new species. Each is beautifully coloured, but 

 the scheme of ornamentation is widely different. In A. volans the 

 capvit is ornamented with three longitudinal bars of soft greyish- 

 green and two of scarlet, whereas A. spJendetis has a curved 

 transverse bar of scarlet \n\i no longitudinal l^ands; then again 

 the scheme of ornamentation on the abdomen of each is also 

 different But the chief reasons for describing this species, and 

 which must have the weightiest considerations in such cases, ai-e to 



Vol. .\iv. 4tli Series, pp- 178-180, Plate xvii. fii^s. 4-Jr/. 



