new South- African Spiders. 63 



tibiae of first, second, and third also armed with 8 spines, 2 in 

 front, 2 + 2 below, 2 behind; tibia of fourth with 6 spines, 

 the posterior pair missing ; protarsi also with 8 spines, 2, 2 

 below, 2 in front, and 2 behind ; that of the fourth leg with 

 some extra apical spines. 



Abdomen elongate oval. Vulva of large size, occupying 

 the whole of the middle of the epigastric plate, nearly circular, 

 its posterior border emarginate, the middle of the emargination 

 deeply notched, the notch passing into a deep sulcus, which 

 divides the vulva into two halves ; the surface of the plate 

 marked with a deep oval excavation. 



Measurements in millimetres. — Total length 15'5; length 

 and width of carapace 7 ; length of first leg 27, of second 29"5, 

 of third 21-5, of fourth 22-5. 



Loc. Durban (H. A. Spencer). A single female specimen. 



Mr. H. A. Spencer also obtained in S. Africa specimens 

 of the two following species of Heteropodidaj : — 



1. Palystes meqacephalus (C. Koch), Die Arachn. xii. p. 25 



(1848) (Ocypete). 



Loc. Port Elizabeth. Adult male and female. 



This species is, I think, generically distinct from the rest 

 of the S.- African species of Palystes. The carapace is both 

 higher and longer, the width falling considerably short of the 

 distance between the posterior border and the eyes of the 

 hinder row. These eyes, too, are not evenly spaced as in 

 PalysteS) the distance between the two medians being notice- 

 ably less than that between the medians and the laterals. 

 The legs, moreover, are distinctly less " laterigrade " than is 

 usual with the Heteropodidaj. 



2. Palystes castaneus (Latr.). (PL VIII. fig. 9.) 



Thomisus castatieus, Latr. Nouv. Diet. Hist. Nat. xxxiv. p. 30 (1819) 

 (teste Simon). 



Olios castaneus and fuscus, Walck. Ins. Apt. i. pp. 571-573 (1837) 

 (teste Simonj. 



Ocypete melanoyaster, C. Koch, Die Arachn. xii. p. 31 (1845). 



Ocypete nobilis (Fabr.), C. Koch, ibid. p. 37, $ (probably not nobilis of 

 Fabricius, which is said to be Indian). 



Mr. Spencer obtained three examples of this handsome 

 species at Cape Town. 



In the figure of the vulva that L. Koch has published (Die 

 Arachn. Australiens, pi. lx. fig. 4 b) the median notch on the 



