ARANEUS. 



227 



Colour very variable, either uniformly flavous or blackish, legs 

 obscurely banded ; dorsal side of abdomen 

 often black and bordered with a sinuous 

 yellow band and marked in front in the middle 

 line with a pair of close-set narrow pale 

 stripes. Carapace convex, smooth ; eyes of 

 posterior line very strongly recurved; laterals 

 widely separated. Legs short and strong. 

 Abdomen oval, with large shoulder promi- 

 nences, a deeply bifid posterior extremity, 

 and a lateral prominence on each side just in 

 front of the middle. Vulva without scape. 

 Total length about 12 mm. 

 Loc. Ceylon (Barnes, Cambridge). India : 

 Bangalore (Staunton) ; Chingleput (Jambu- 

 nathari) ; Kanara (Millet). Burma: Rangoon, 

 Tharrawaddy ( Oates). Also Australia, Mada- 

 gascar &c., Africa, and S. Europe. 



Fig. 73. Araneus 

 citricola, J , X 2. 



246. Araneus exanthematicus, Dolfschall, Verh. Nat. Vereen. Neder- 



land. Indie, v, no. 5, p. 38, t. iii, tig. 3, 1859 ; Thorell, Ann. Mas. 

 Genova, xiii, p. 57, 1878 (Epeira). " 



Nearly allied to A. citricola, but at once distinguishble by the 

 absence of the submedian lateral prominence on the abdomen. 

 Total length about 10 mm. 

 LOG. Burma: Tounghoo (Oates). Indo- and Austro-Malaysia. 



247. Araneus bilunifer, sp. n. 



. Prevailing colour yellowish, legs 

 distally infuscate and banded, sternum 

 mesially blackish ; abdomen yellowish 

 grey, indistinctly variegated with 

 darker markings, marked in front 

 with a pair of large circular black- 

 ringed yellow patches and some smaller 

 irregular spots in front of them ; median 

 ventral area infuscate, with pale yellow 

 band on each side. Carapace weakly 

 granular ; eyes of posterior line lightly 

 recurved, medians almost in contact, 

 lateral eyes visibly separated. Legs 

 strong, spiny; protarsi of anterior pairs 

 armed with many close-set spines from 

 base to apex : tarsi spined. Abdomen 

 broadly oval, with a pair of low 

 shoulder-points. Vulva with scape 

 much narrower than basal portion and 

 closely in contact with it. 



Fig. 74. 

 Araneus bilunifer, $ , X 2. 



Total length 21 mm. 



Loc. S. India : Chingleput (Jambunathan). 



