292 REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE ON NEW ARANEIDEA. [Mar. 4, 



The legs are very short, strong, and yellow, marked or roughly 

 annulated with black-brown. 



The abdomen is mottled and marbled above with black and pale 

 yellowish ; the sigilla form most of the dark portions ; and the rest is 

 intersected with black veiny lines and markings, leaving, however, in 

 some examples a tolerably distinct, large, yellow, cruciform marking 

 extending over the whole of the upperside. The figure is taken from 

 one of the examples in which this was most distinctly marked ; the 

 underside is blackish, spotted thickly with yellow spots and markings. 



Hah. Caffraria, where it was taken by Mr. J. Mansel Weale, who 

 kindly sent it to me, with other Spiders. 



Gasteracantha rogersi, sp. u. (Plate XXVII. fig. 23.) 



Length of the transverse diameter of the adult male 1^ line ; longi- 

 tudinal diameter 1 line. 



This is, to me, a most interesting Spider, being the only male I have 

 ever seen in the now numerously represented genus Gasteracantha ; 

 it is also, I believe, the second ever yet described ; and it bears 

 out a remark I formerly made with respect to the probable size and 

 look of the males of this group. 



The abdomen of the present Spider is of a nearly square form, with 

 the corners rounded off and the anterior margin somewhat hollowed ; 

 its colour is a deep blackish brown, deeply covered with very minute 

 pock-marks or round punctures, and a few short, somewhat spine- 

 like, coarse, grey hairs. The spines are four in number, rudimentary, 

 though quite visible, no trace, however, being discernible of any cor- 

 responding to the usual intermediate ones ; those present are, one at 

 each of the rounded fore corners, and two behind in the ordinary 

 position of the posterior ones. The sigilla are 24 in number, of 

 tolerable size, though rather indistinct, being merely rather darker 

 than the rest of the abdominal surface, the middle of which is some- 

 what more convex than the sides ; 20 of the sigilla form a marginal 

 line round the whole of the abdomen ; the rest form a central qua- 

 drangular figure. 



The cephalothorax is large ; the caput is elevated in a generally 

 convex form, with but the very slightest longitudinal central inden- 

 tation ; it is also very strongly constricted behind the eyes on each 

 side ; its colour is like that of' the abdomen ; and it is covered with 

 short coarse grey hairs. 



The legs are short, strong, tapering towards their extremities, of a 

 deep brown colour, the posterior half of each of the tarsi and me- 

 tatarsi being of a yellowish colour, the anterior portion yellow-brown. 

 They are clothed with greyish hairs; and there are a few spines 

 beneath the tibiae of the first and second pairs. 



The palpi are short; the digital joint \ery large, of a somewhat 

 oval form, and with the palpal organs (which are quite simple in 

 structure, with a prominent process at their base on the outer side) 

 form a very large club-like mass ; the radial joint is very short, and 

 prominent on the outer side ; the cubital joint is also very short. 



The example above described was contained in a small collection 



