Regions of Lakes Nyasa and Tanganyika. 435 



Subspecies nyikce, nov. 

 Colour. Carapace black, with silvery pubescence ; maxillae 

 black ; labium black, with median longitudinal yellow line ; 

 sternum yellow, narrowly black at the sides; palpi with 

 femur, patella, and tibia yellow, lightly and imperfectly ringed 

 with black, tarsus black ; legs brownish black, with a yellow 

 ring round the distal end of the femora and tibiaj, these yellow 

 bands scarcely or not traceable on third leg : abdomen varying 

 in colour; the upperside usually furnished with four (five) 

 broad transverse yellow stripes, as in AT. bragantina ; the 

 anterior of these is the broadest and extends inferiorly almost 

 as far as the epigastric fold, the others expand at their extre- 

 mities and sometimes become united, though more often 

 remaining distinct ; sometimes these bands break up into a 

 series of median and lateral yellow blotches ; the lower side 

 of the abdomen is dark, with a yellow x -shaped mark in the 

 middle of the area between the spinners and the epigastric 

 fold ; behind the fold there is a transverse yellow stripe, 

 from the ends of which a narrow yellow stripe sometimes 

 extends backwards. 



Tibia} of legs, except of third pair, tufted, the tuft scanty 

 on the apical yellow band. 



Measurements in millimetres. — Total length up to 28 ; 

 length of carapace 9, of first leg 49, of second leg 40, of third 

 leg 20, of fourth leg 35 (all measured from base of femur). 

 Loc. Nyika plateau, 6000-7000 feet {A. Whyte). 

 Resembling the subspecies N. senegalensis bragantina, 

 Brito Capello, but recognizable by having the palpi mostly 

 yellow instead of mostly black, and by the presence of a 

 yellow ring round the end of the femora of the legs. 



Of the typical form of this species the British Museum 

 possesses examples from the Cape Verde Islands (F. Cam- 

 bridge) and from Jifa Uri, inland of Zeyla, Somaliland 

 {B. M. Hawker). 



The only other subspecies represented in the British Museum 

 collection is the more southern form occurring in Natal, the 

 Transvaal, and Mashonaland, which I described as trans- 

 vaalica, and which is probably identical with annulata, 

 Thorell, but not with hymenosa as M. Simon asserts. 



Genus Argiope, Aud. 



Argiope fiavipalpis (Lucas). 



JEpeiraJtavymljiis, Lucas, in Thomson's Arch. Ent. ii. p. 423 ( = Pechudi, 

 Karsch). 



Loc. Kondowe, near Karonga, 2000 feet, N. Nyasa (A. 

 Whyte). 



