200 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



a diagnosis thereof is given. In no one of these works is any reference made to the fact 

 that I had already established for the typical species a new genus. 



It may perhaps be a question whether the mere announcement and tabulating of a 

 genus in connection with a fairly typical species by which it can easily be identified, yet 

 with no further diagnosis, is entitled to credit by araneologists. In point of fact, however, 

 such scant description has frequently been recognized, and there is no reason why the rule 

 of courtesy should be broken in the present instance. If, however, the name Mahadeva has 

 right of priority, it must be conceded to Dr. Marx, who first made it known on his own 

 responsibility, although he generously, as in so many other cases, attributes it to Keyserling. 

 Next to him, Cambridge would certainly have priority over Keyserling, whose publication 

 unhappily did not appear until 1892. In view of the above circumstances I have felt 

 bound, under the laws of priority, to give precedence to Verrucosa as the generic name of 

 this interesting group" of spiders, of which I still hold Verrucosa arenata (Hentz) to be 

 the type. 



No. 56. Verrucosa arenata (WALCKENAER). Plate XII, Figs. 6, 7. 



1837. Epeira arenata, WALCKENAER . . Ins. Apt., ii., p. 133; ABBOT, G. S., Nos. 165, 181, 



182, 183, 360. 

 1844. Epeira verrucosa, HENTZ . . . . B. J. S., 19 ; Sp. U. S., 121, xiv., 2. 



1888. Verrucosa arenata, McCooK . . . Proceed. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., p. 5. 



1889. Epeira verrucosa, McCooK .... Amer. Spiders and their Spinningwork. 

 1889. Mahadeva arenata, MARX .... Catalogue, p. 541. 



1889. Mahadiva verrucosa, CAMBRIDGE . Biolog. Cent.-Amer., p. 553. 



1892. Mahadeva verrucosa, KEYSERLING . Spinn. Amerik., Epeir., p. 72, pi. 3, Fig. 56. 



FEMALE: Total length, 9 mm.; cephalothorax, 3.3 mm. long, 2.75 mm. wide, 1.5 mm. at 

 the face; abdomen, 6.5 mm. long, 6 mm. wide across the base, narrowing to 1 mm. at the 

 apex of the dorsum and 3 mm. across the apical wall. The snare is a round orbweb of 

 the ordinary Epei'roid type. 



CEPHALOTHORAX: A somewhat elongated oval, truncate at the base, rounded at the 

 sides, the color dull yellow, flecked with brown, varying from thence to brownish, with the 

 head usually brown or ruddy brown ; corselet grooves not distinct ; cephalic suture deeply 

 marked ; fosse a circular depression from which the corselet slopes sharply to the base ; the 

 head rather shortened, much rounded at the sides and narrowed at the base ; face wide 

 and full, is glossy brown, with lighter shades around the ocular quad. Sternum shield 

 shape, wide at the base, though somewhat longer than wide, and narrowed at the apex ; 

 with sternal cones ; glossy blackish brown ; somewhat pubescent ; labium large, wide at the 

 base, which is brown, subtriangular at the tip, which is yellow; maxillae as wide as long, 

 rounded at the tips, brown, glossy. 



EYES: Fig. 6b. Ocular quad on a squarish eminence, most prominent in front; front 

 wider than rear and about equal in length to the sides; MF somewhat larger than MR, 

 separated by about 1.5 diameter, on separate tubercles, the front of the quad being divided 

 by a notch; MR separated by about one diameter. Side. eyes on tubercles; SF larger than 

 SR, divided by about or less than a radius; SF separated from MF by about 1.3 the area of 

 the latter, or more than twice the intervening space thereof; clypeus height about 1.5 MF, 

 the ocular eminence approaching almost to its margin ; front row recurved ; rear row 

 slightly procurved, resembling thus the eyes of Epeira. 



LEGS: 1, 2, 4, 3; stout, yellow, glossy, with bright brown or orange apical and median 

 annuli, abundantly provided with strong yellowish bristles and hair, and with acute 

 yellowish spines ; palps colored and armored as legs ; mandibles glossy brown, conical, 

 arched, widely divergent at the tips, slightly pubescent. 



ABDOMEN: Triangular ovate; almost as wide at the base as long; the dorsum flat, 

 except in gravid specimens, when it becomes slightly arched ; is marked along either side 



