indigenous to the Salvages. 175 



all new to science, they possess an especial interest arising from 

 the very peculiar character of the locality in which they were 

 foond. How these species were originally introduced into this 

 small. Isolated, and desolate spot is a difficult problem to solve ; 

 but, as it is well known that, under favourable circumstances, 

 spiders are borne through the atmosphere to prodigious distances 

 by currents of air acting upon their silken lines, it is possible 

 that they may have been thus conveyed, in an immature state, 

 from the continent of Africa, or from some of the leas distant 

 islands, to their present singular habitat. Should this suppott^ 

 tion be well founded, the wide distribution of spiders of tlie 

 same species will cease to be regarded as a marvellous pheno- 

 menon. 



Tribe Octonoculina. 



Family Drassid^. 



Genus Drassus, Walck. 



Droitut Paivani, n. sp. 



Lei^h of the female fths of an inch ; length of the cephalo- 

 thorax yk ' breadth | ; breadth of the abdomen | ; length of a 

 posterior leg \ ; length of a leg of the third pair |. 



The eyes are diapoaed on the anterior put of tlw oephalo- 

 thorax in two transverse rows ; the two intenwsdnte ones of the 

 posterior row, which is almost straight, are nearer to each other 

 than they are to the lateral eyes of the same row, which are the 

 smallest ; the anterior row is the shorter, and is cuned, having 

 its convexity directed upwards ; the two intermediate eyes are 

 the largest and darkest-coloured of the eight, and the lateral 

 eyes of both rows are separated by a wide interval. The cephalo- 

 thorax is large, convex, depressed towards each extremity, thinly 

 clothed with hairs, compressed before, rounded and depressed 

 on the sides, which are marked with slight furrows converging 

 towards a narrow indentation in the medial line of the posterior 

 region; it is of a yellowish-brown hue; a longitudinal band on 

 each side of the cephalic region, and the oblique lateral furrows, 

 are soot-coloured, the latter being the paler, and the lateral 

 margins have a brownish-black hue. The falces are powerful, 

 conical, slightly prominent, provided with long hairs, and are of 

 a red-bro\*Ti colour. The maxillae are long, rounded at the ex- 

 tremity, near which there is an oblique transverse furrow, and 

 carved towards the lip, which is oblong and notched at the apex; 

 the sternum is oval, the posterior being rather broader than the 

 anterior extremity ; it is supplied with hairs, those on the mar- 

 gins being the longest and darkest-coloured ; the legs are robust; 

 they are clothed with hairs, and the third and fourth pairs are 

 provided with sessile spines ; each tarsus is terminated by two 



