Spiders from the Solomon Islands. 461 



Genus Argiope, Aud. & Sav. 



6. Argiope picta, 1j. Koch. 



Argiope picta, L. Koch, Die Arachn. Austral, i. p. 33, pi. iii. fig. 3 (1871). 

 Argiope principalis, id. ibid. p. 207, pi. xviii. fig. 5. 



A couple of examples collected by Mr. C. M. Woodford, 

 probably in Shortland Island, belong to the form Dr. L. Koch 

 described as .4. ^mic?/:>a^/5, a form whicli has been recorded 

 from New Guinea, Fiji, Queensland, &c. 



7. Argiope leopardina^ sp. n. (PI. XIX. figs. 2, 2 a.) 



Colour. Carapace deep brown, with a yellowish border; 

 palpi ferruginous, with black tarsi ; legs uniformly blackish 

 brown, not banded ; coxse blackish, sternum entirely clear 

 yellow, maxillas black, with yellow border ; abdomen blackish 

 brown above, spotted with yellow and marked in its anterior 

 half with a large yellow patch, as broad as the abdomen in 

 front, but narrowing posteriorly, and partially, or in some cases 

 entirely, divided into two — a larger broad trapezoidal anterior 

 patch and a smaller irregularly circular patch ; the yellovv spots 

 smaller and larger, the larger ones traceable with more or 

 less distinctness by their arrangement in transverse rows; 

 sides of abdomen reddish above, black below ; lower surface 

 with the epigastric region black, with a broad median black 

 band, interrupted in front by four or six white spots, ex- 

 tending along the middle line to the spinners ; at its posterior 

 end the band is defined on each side and narrowly behind by 

 a triangular patch of an orange-yellow hue, which in front 

 is in contact with the posterior end of a broad white stripe, 

 three times or only twice as long as wide, with its posterior 

 end produced into an external anguliform process ; the stripe 

 does not reach the epigastric fold in front, but ends inter- 

 nally in a short point just in front of the anterior white spot, 

 while externally it is continued as a narrow white line forwards 

 into a point on a level with a continuation of the epigastric fold. 



Carapace a little shorter than tibia of fourth pair. 



Abdomen oval, without shoulder-spikes. 



Vulva as in A. picta. 



Measurements in millimetres. — Total length 25 ; length of 

 carapace 8'2, width 7*8 ; length of abdomen 17'5, width 11 ; 

 length of first leg 46, of fourth 43*5. 



Loc. Probably Shortland Island. Collected by C. M, 

 Woodford. 



This form apparently difi'ers from A, picta and all its sab- 

 species, i. e. gorgonea, principalis, and faorensis (see Thorell, 



Ann. <k Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 7. Vol. i. 34 



