1878.] MR. BUTLER ON A NEW SPIDER FROM MADAGASCAR. 



799 



3. Description of a Remarkable new Spider from Mada- 

 gascar. By Arthur G. Butler, F.L.S., F.Z.S., &c. 



[Received July 24, 1878.] 



Amongst a series of insects of various orders recently collected 

 in Madagascar by the Rev. William Deans Cowan, I found two 

 Epeinds which especially interested me. The first of these I at 

 once recognized as a fine example of the Epeira tuberculosa of Vin- 

 son (Aran, de Reunion, Maurice, et Madagascar, pi. xiv. fig. 2) 

 specimens of which were previously in the collection of the British 

 Museum. 



The second spider struck me as so extraordinarv that I wrote to 

 the Rev. O. P. Cambridge respecting it. He tells me that it is a 

 Ccerostris, allied to C. mitralis, Vinson (foe. cit. pi. ix. figs. 2-4), 

 but it appears to be perfectly distinct. "Epeira tuberculosa " be- 

 longs also to Ccerostris. 



Fig. 1. Ccerostris avernalis (enlarged). 

 Pig. 3. View of abdomen from behind. 



Fig. 2. Profile of abdomen. 



Ccerostris avernalis, n. sp. 



Cephalothorax and falces dark castaneous, clothed at the sides 

 and behind with whity-brown pile ; palpi and legs above bright 

 reddish castaneous, hairy at the sides, the femora cylindrical, with 

 blackish lateral hairs, the tibiae and tarsi flattened and longitudinally 

 bisulcate, with whitish lateral hairs ; tibiae and tarsi below with 

 their basal or distal extremities broadly belted with whitish, and their 

 proximal extremities blackish ; abdomen dark clay-coloured, covered 

 (excepting the tubercles and odontoid processes) with whitish pile • 

 centre of ventral surface blackish. ' 



Falces large, rugulose, subcylindrical ; palpi broad, flattened, bi- 



