1879.] REV. O. p. CAMBRIDGE ON NEW ARANEIDEA. 281 



vividness of colouring, as well as distinctness of markings. This is 

 very seldom the case with dried specimens, of which I possess some 

 similar in species to those preserved in spirit ; but the former give 

 no idea at all of the colours and pattern shown in the spirit-preserved 

 examples. 



Among the species of Gasteracantha described below is a very 

 minute male adult {G. rogersi, sp. n., p. 292, pi. XXVII. fig. 23), 

 from the river Coanza. This is as yet only the second male de- 

 scribed in the genus. Few collections of Spiders come from exotic 

 regions without containing (more or fewer) examples of the female 

 sex ; but, excepting in the two instances mentioned, the male sex 

 appears to be nonexistent. This latter sex (as in those two cases) is 

 probably always a pygmy compared with the female, and is very likely 

 a good deal, if not altogether, different in respect of its abdominal 

 armature. The females sit quite exposed in their orbicular snares, 

 and so need a defensive armature, which the males do not require 

 if they are, as I imagine, almost always, if not invariably, very 

 minute, and live mostly in some kind of concealment or other — being 

 also perhaps, compared with the female, very short lived. Two others 

 of the Spiders here described are remarkable, and I believe quite 

 novel, in their form — Gasteracantha crepidoj^hora, sp. n. (p. 287, 

 PI. XXVII. fig. 14), from Dorey, New Guinea, and G. acrosomoides, 

 sp. n. (p. 289, PI. XXVII. fig. 19), from Madagascar. The two 

 larger spines of the former very exactly resemble a pair of sharp-toed 

 boots ; and the latter is exceedingly like some spiders of the genus 

 Aerosoma. 





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