82 Mr. R. I. Pocock on the Genus Poecilotheria. 



confined to the Transvaal, which is, however, decidedly 

 improbable. I brought home two specimens with me in 1896, 

 and during a visit to the Pretoria Museum last October I 

 was able to inspect a fair series of both sexes. 



Tibicen sirius, sp. n. 



Head and thorax chocolate-brown. Head with the central 

 area to face, anterior margin, apex of front, and area of the 

 ocelli black. Pronotum with two blackish, narrow, central, 

 contiguous fascia^ widened anteriorly and posteriorly. Meso- 

 notum with four obconical black spots, the central two 

 smallest, the lateral ones very long ; central area of cruciform 

 elevation black. Abdomen rufous-brown, the segments more 

 or less transversely streaked with piceous, and with a distinct 

 series of linear black spots on each lateral margin. Head 

 beneath and sternum palely tomentose ; legs chocolate-brown, 

 streaked with piceous; tarsi piceous, posterior femora and 

 tarsi ochraceous ; opercula dull ochraceous ; abdomen beneath 

 rufous-brown, with a faint central, longitudinal, macular, 

 piceous fascia. 



Tegmina and wings pale hyaline, both with a very distinct 

 basal ochraceous patch ; venation fuscous ; wings with a 

 small fuscous spot at apex of radial area, posterior margin of 

 abdominal area also very distinctly fuscous. 



Long. excl. tegm., <?, 17 millim. ; exp. tegra. 47 millim. 



Hab. Transvaal, Lyclenburg District (Pret. Mus. and Coll. 

 Dist.). 



This species is superficially to be recognized by the basal 

 ochraceous areas to the tegmina and wings. The rostrum 

 reaches the intermediate coxa;; the anterior femora are 

 provided with two long acute spines. 



XII. — The Genus Poecilotheria: its Habits, History, and 

 Species. By E. I. POCOCK, of the British Museum of 

 Natural History. 



[Plate VII.] 



Part 1. — Observations on the Habits and History 

 of the Genus. 



THE genus Poecilotheria is a representative of that great and 

 almsot cosmopolitan group of spiders which was formerly 

 included under the comprehensive title Mygale — a terra which 

 is still to be found in many recent text-books of zoology and 



