NOTES ON AUSTRALIAN AKANEID.E —RAINBOW. 219 



collecting in the bush, I came across an individual of this species 

 amongst the fallen sticks and leaves that constitute the forest 

 debris, and had it not been that \ observed a slight movement in 

 one of its legs, probably clue to disturbing the rubbish, it would 

 have escaped my notice. 



It would seem, however, that the orbicular form of snare is not 

 constant with Arachnura. A New Zealand species discovered by 

 Dr. Llewellyn Powell " spins only a few irregular threads, cross- 

 ing each other at various places, among twigs or small branches 

 and stems of herbaceous plants, very similar to spiders of the 

 genus Theridion." 13 Simon's observations of the webs of species 

 of this genus at Manilla 14 agree with mine as detailed above in 

 respect of A. higginsi. 



Four genera are included in the next section, the Cyclosea?, but 

 only one of them, Cyclosa, Menge, is included in our fauna. The 

 range of this genus is " Orbis totius reg. temp, et calida?." 15 



Epeira rhombocephala, Thor., from Cape York, and E. Valletta, 

 Keys., from Rockhampton, together with a number of Malaysian, 

 Papuan, and Polynesian forms, have been transferred by Simon 

 from Araneus (Eperia) to the genus Cyclosa. Of the two Aus- 

 tralian forms quoted, Cyclosa vallata is alone known to me. It 

 is a very small species, measuring only about three and a half 

 millimetres in length; the abdomen is longer than broad, strongly 

 arched, and has two large tubercles on its upper surface. The 

 species included in the genus are very variable, and the abdomen 

 may be ovate, obtusely rhomboidal, subquadrate, or shortly ovate 

 and subglobose. The webs of Cyclosa are orbicular, and are 

 fabricated in an almost vertical position, the spirals are numerous 

 and very closely woven ; a stabilinientum is present, but this 

 latter varies with the different species. The ova are deposited 

 in a series of cocoons, which are sometimes concurrent with or 

 constitute the siabilimentum. 



The species described by me, together with its web and cocoons, 

 as Epeira pallida, must be transferred to the genus Cyclosa.^'' 



Mangorese is a section to which no Australian species have as 

 yet been assigned, but seeing that one genus, Lobetiua, Simon, 

 included in it is represented both in New Guinea (L. opaciceps, 



"Cambridge — Aun. Mag. Nat. Hist., (4), vi., 1S70, p. 116. 

 14 Simon — Loc. cit., p. 777. 

 15 Simon — Loc. cit., p. 783. 



16 Rainbow — Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, xxiii., 1897, p. 514, pi. xvii., 

 fig. 1, and pp. 534 and 535, tig. 1. 



