THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[FOURTH SERIES.] 

 No. 81. SEPTEMBER 1874. 



XXIV. — On some new Genera and Species of Araneidea. 

 By the Rev. O. P. Cambridge, M.A., C.M.Z.S. 



[Plate XVII.] 



The spiders described here belong to widely separated locali- 

 ties : five are from Australia, one from Natal, and one from 

 Brazil. All are of great interest, especially the new genus 

 Mutusca (from Australia) ; the abnormal position of the in- 

 ferior spinners in this spider is almost unique, occurring only, 

 as far as is known (but in a still more striking way), in one 

 other species, Lijphistius desultor ?, Schiodte. In Attus volans, 

 sp. n., from near Sydney, New South Wales, the wing-like 

 development of the superior epidermis of the abdomen is also, 

 as far as I am aware, hitherto quite unexampled. 



Details of these and the remaining species, with all known 

 particulars concerning them, will be found in the descriptions 

 given below. 



One other circumstance connected with two of the spiders 

 recorded here is perhaps worth noting in this short introduc- 

 tion ; and that is the occurrence in North Australia of two 

 remarkable genera, Miagvammopes (Cambr.') and Amycle 

 (Cambr.), first discovered not long since in Ceylon. The 

 species representing these genera in Australia are exceedingly 

 closely allied to those found in Ceylon ; in fact (as below re- 

 marked) it seems doubtful whether one of them, Amycle albo- 

 maculata, may not eventually prove to be a mere variety 

 of the only as yet known Ceylon species. How does this 

 affect the theory of the entire separation of the faunas of 



Ann. & May. N. Hist. Ser. 4. Vol. xiv. 12 



