18/6.] REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE ON EGYPTIAN SPIDERS. 555 



Fam. Dictynides. 

 Gen. Dictyna, Sund. 



DlCTYNA INNOCENS. 



Ergatis innocens, Carabr. Spid. Palest. & Syria, P. Z. S. 18/2, 

 p. 2G2. 



Adult male, length rather more than 1 line. 



Females only of this distinctly marked species were found in 

 Palestine ; but a single adult male example of what I feel no doubt 

 is of the same species, found on a low plant near Cairo, enables me 

 now to give the distinctive characters of the latter sex. 



In colouis and markings both sexes are alike. The cephalo- 

 thorax of the male is of a dark yellowish-brown colour, thinly 

 clothed with coarse hoary hairs ; the caput is strongly elevated and 

 well rounded ; the clvpeus projects considerably forwards, and its 

 height exceeds half that of the facial space. 



The eyes are in the usual position ; those of the fore central pair 

 are nearer together than each is to the fore lateral eye on its 

 side. 



The legs are moderate in length and strength ; their relative 

 length is 1, 2, 4, 3. They are of a dull yellow colour, faintly 

 banded with brown, and clothed with coarse hairs, of which many 

 are of a hoary colour. 



The palpi are of a dull pale yellow colour ; the radial and cubital 

 joints are short, but about equal in length ; and from the upperside 

 at the hinder extremity of the former there is a small thorn-like 

 blackish spine directed forwards ; the digital joint is large and 

 broad; the palpal organs are simple, and surrounded by a strong 

 black spine, which arises from their base on the inner side, and 

 terminates in a fine point near their base on the outer side. 



The J 'alces are of moderate size, and of the curved form usual in 

 spiders of this genus, though less remarkably so than in some others, 

 and they are of a dark brown colour. 



The maxillce, labium, and sternum are similar in colour to the 

 fakes, and clothed thinly with coarse hoary hairs. 



The abdomen is oval and projects a little over the base of the 

 cephalothorax ; the ground-colour is dull brownish-yellow clothed 

 with hoary and other hairs ; the longitudinal central black-brown 

 marking on the fore part of the upperside is cruciform near its 

 hinder extremity, where it is also strongly bifid, the limbs of the 

 bifid portion being recurved ; this bifid part represents, in fact, the 

 foremost of the series of blackish-brown angular bars running along 

 the middle of the hinder half; the sides are irregularly marked and 

 blotched with dark brown ; and the underside has a broad longitudi- 

 nal central brown band throughout its length ; and on either side of 

 this band is a large oblong oval whitish patch, formed chiefly by 

 hoary hairs. The transverse supernumerary mammillary organ is 

 present, close in front of the ordinary spinners ; but no calamistra are 

 visible on the metatarsi of the hinder pair of legs. 



