Genera and Species of Araneidea. 33 



and furnished with a few fine hairs ; the caput is large, much 

 elevated above the height of the thorax, and rather roundly 

 sloping from the occiput to the eyes 5 the occipital slope is 

 abrupt and rather hollow. 



The eyes are in three widely separated groups, close to the 

 fore margin of the caput, leaving a clypeus of very small 

 height ; the central group of four eyes, seated on a black patch, 

 forms very nearly a square, whose hinder side is the longest, 

 the two eyes forming this side being the largest of the eight ; 

 the eyes of the lateral pairs are the smallest, and those of each 

 pair are seated contiguously on a small tubercle quite at the 

 fore corner of the caput. 



The legs are short, tolerably' strong, and not very greatly 

 " different in length ; they are of a dark blackish brown hue, 

 the basal joints, as well as a portion of the tibiee and metatarsi 

 of the third and fourth pairs, being brownish yellow ; they are 

 furnished with hairs, bristles, and a few spines, the latter 

 chiefly on those of the first and second pairs. 



The palpi are moderately long and slender, similar in colour 

 to the legs, and furnished with hairs and strongish bristles. 



The falces are long and powerful, their direction being 

 nearly vertical. At their base their colour is like that of the 

 cephalothorax, deepening, however, to a dark brown at the 

 extremity. 



The maxillae^ labium^ and sternum are of normal character, 

 and their colour is deep brown-black. 



The abdomen is large, as nearly as possible round, mo- 

 derately convex above, and projects over the cephalothorax to 

 the highest part of the caput ; the upper surface is of a cor- 

 neous nature, though the usual boss-like markings are some 

 of them obsolete and the rest very indistinct ; its colour is a 

 cream-white, marked with some large and generally well- 

 defined black patches and spots ; the nature of these will be 

 best understood by reference to the figure (PI. VII.) : there is 

 some little variation in the extent of these black markings ; 

 but they are always easily traced, and generally very conspi- 

 cuous on the clear white ground-colour. The underside is 

 black -brown ; and the sides are longitudinally wrinkled. 

 The spinners are short, compactly grouped, and of a dark 

 brown colour. 



The tnale is smaller than the female, being 1^ line in length ; 

 the legs of the first and second pairs are longer ; and all the 

 legs are of a brownish yellow colour, the femoral and genual 

 joints more or less suffused with dark brown. 



The palpi are short, the digital joints large, and, together 

 with the palpal organs, form a mass of, comparatively, an enor- 



Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 4. Vol. xix. 3 



