18"().] REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE ON EGYPTIAN SPIDERS. 587 



and blunt behind ; its colour is a dull testaceous yellow, clothed 

 with hairs of various dull yellowish brown and black hues ; those 

 just below the fore margin are upturned, black, and bristly ; the 

 upperside is marked with blackish spots, some of which form two 

 longitudinal lines, an oblong marking along the middle of the fore 

 half, following which, on the hinder half, are two or three more or 

 less well-defined transverse lines, the middle portion of the second 

 of these lines being strongly curved ; around the margin of the hinder 

 extremity are some small pointed tufts of pale whitish yellow hairs. 

 The spinners are small and short, and, together with the anal tubercle, 

 are partially concealed within a kind of circular sheath, which may be 

 seen when in a rather protruded state in some examples ; but in others 

 it is quite invisible ; it is probably an exaggeration or more de- 

 veloped form of this peculiarity of which Baron Walckenaer speaks 

 with respect to Selenops omalosoma, Duf., and is no doubt a remnant 

 of the once segmented abdomen of the Araneidea. The general form 

 of Selenops is strikingly like that of Phrynus, the nearest ally to 

 the true Spiders ; and it is not surprising therefore that the seg- 

 mented form of abdomen in the former should be more visible in the 

 present than in most other known Spiders. 



This Spider is probably common in houses in Egypt, though I 

 did not myself meet with it except in the Nile boats. According 

 to the sailors' account, it preys upon the cockroaches with which these 

 boats are generally infested. 



The female differs from the male only in being larger and with 

 shorter and stronger legs. The exceedingly flattened form of this 

 Spicier, which runs with inconceivable quickness, and with its legs 

 extended flat on all sides upon the surface, enables it to glide in an 

 instant through cracks and crevices so narrow as to have escaped 

 observation until the Spider disappears, as if by magic, through the 

 wainscoting of the boat. The only way in which I succeeded in 

 capturing this Spider was by observing it when undisturbed and 

 motionless for an instant, and then placing an inverted tumbler 

 over it, when a piece of paper passed carefully behind, put it com- 

 pletely in my power, and enabled me to chloroform and secure it 

 without the slightest damage to the specimen. I have an adult male 

 of this species from Old Calabar, on the west coast of Africa ; this 

 example only differs in having the abdominal markings more distinct 

 than in the Egyptian specimens. 



Gen. Sparassus, Walck. 



Sparassus walckenaerius. 



Sparassus ivalckenaerius, Sav. et Aud. Egypte, p. 159, pi. vi. fig. 1 . 



Although not rare in Egypt, I was not able to obtain an adult 

 example of either sex of this fine Spider ; no doubt their period of 

 maturity occurs later on towards the summer season, the time when 

 my examples were found being in January and February; the 

 length of the largest example met with (an immature female) is 13 

 lines. Among other situations in which this species was found, it 



