ARACHNIDA FROM NORTHERN QDEENSLANBc'/^^c: 



By W. J. Rainkow, Eutoniologist. "'"'^/^ 



* p, , , \<XA/-. 



(rJates xxi., xxii., xxiii.) 



Funiily ARGIOPID^. 



A large number of specimens of this immense family were 

 collected hy Mr. A. A. Girault, the greater majority by far 

 being species, the individuals of which are small. Many of 

 them, too, were the product of the sweeping-net. A number 

 of old friends are, naturally, included ; some are common and 

 widely distributed, some are rare and local, while others are 

 now for the first time introduced to the student. The 

 collection includes many exceedingly brilliant and beautiful 

 forms. 



Snh-f,(„t iJij Tetragnathix^. 



This sub-family has been divided by Simon into seven 

 groups, but only two of these are represented here, namely, 

 Tetragnatheoe and MetetP. 



OriU(p TETIiAONATHK.f:. 



The Tetragnathea? are known, popularly, as the "Stilt" 

 spiders, in allusion to their enoi'mously long legs, but they 

 possess other characters that are I'emarkably distinctive, such 

 as tlie cephalothoj'ax which is nearly straight, but always long 

 and uai'row, and only sliglitl}- convex ; by the ej'es, which are 

 slightly unequal, and distributed over two usually recurved 

 rows consisting of four each ; bj' the remarkable falces which 

 are always long, and very fi-equently boldly projected forward 

 in a more or less horizontal plane; and, again, by the abdomen 

 which is alwa^'s long, c\'lindi'ical and nari'ow. In addition to 

 these peculiarities tliei-e are other interesting features which 

 the student will find fully detailed in Simon's monumental 

 work, "Histoire Natui'elle des Araignees," 2nd ed., vol. i., 1892 

 (189-1). 



G'eni(S Tetragnatha, Latr. 



Fifteen species of this world-wide genus have, so far, been 

 recorded from Australia, and eight of these are enumei^ated 

 below, with, in aJdirion, a new form, for which I propose the 

 name T. lepida. 



