6(> Olservat'ions on. some Insects little known. 



will hardly be considered by entomologists as real eyes, 

 but as prominences which have the form of eyes without 

 posf essiiig their properties. If this conjecture, which ap- 

 pears to me very prol>abIi;^ be well founded, and as the eight 

 real eyes of Lepechin's spider, according to his own ac- 

 count, are arranged in this manner, .... it belongs to 



Fabricius's sixth family of spiders, where the aranea clavipes,' 

 snccafa, and fnmigrita, are placed. In regard to form, it 

 seems to have the greatest similarity to the aranea davipes; 

 from which, however, it is so different in many respects, 

 even without taking into account the diversity of country, 

 {hat few entomologists will be inclined to consider both as 

 varieties of the same kind. The parts of the mouth are not 

 different from those of spiders in general : what Lepechin 

 calls feelers are, in all probability, nothing else than what 

 entomologists have long and much better distinsruished by 

 the name of palpi; for it may with certainty be afRrmed, 

 that no antennce have ever yet been found in spiders. It is 

 seen, from what has been said, that Lepechin's tarantula 

 certainly deserves to form a new kind in the system, which 

 may be placed after the aranea cJav'ipes as follows : 



Araxea tartarica oculis 



A. hirta atra, thorace albo marginato, rotundato, abdomi- 

 nis dorso seriebus duabus punctorum albicantium, pedi- 

 bus e rufescente-nigris. 



Habitat in Tartaria valde frequens. 



Subterranca, retiaria. Hirta, atra. Thorax rotundatus, 

 albo-marginatus, medio alter, pilosus, verulis albis. 

 Mandibularum pars lateralis, maculis magnis, oculari- 

 bus, rubris. Palpi rufescentes, articulo extremo obtuso, 

 nigro. Abdominis dorsum seriebus duabus punctorum 

 albicantium. Femora priora subtus rufescentia; tibiae 

 tarsique annulis atris, rufescentibus et nigris. Anus pa- 

 pillis sex. 



Succo viroso albo proedita. 



It is not improbable that this spider is of the same kind 

 as that described by Laxman * under the name of aranea 

 Sivgariemis : at any rate there is great reason to make this 

 conjecture, from what Gmelin says of this spider, in de- 

 scribing the aranea tarantula f : should this be the ease, 



*■ Nov. Comment. Petropol. vol. xiv. p. 602. 



i See Sjrsteaia Is'at. Linn. sd. 13, torn, i. par& v. p. 2956, n. 3+. 



I>axman's 



