18/6.] REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE ON EGYPTIAN SPIDERS. 615 



but densely and uniformly clothed with whitish and sandy grey 

 pubescence, liable to be rubbed off in capturing and securing. 



The female is considerably larger than the male, but resembles it 

 in general characters and appearance ; the colour of the abdomen in 

 this sex, however, is more commonly of a more sandy hue than tliat 

 of the male. 



Adults of both sexes were found on the bare desert in several 

 places from Alexandria to Assouan, and, except when in motion, are 

 exceedingly difficult to perceive. The males are very active. 



Attus mendax, sp. n. 



Adult male, length 3 lines. 



The cephalothorax of this Spider is massive, but of ordinary form, 

 and thickly pubescent, with a good many prominent bristly hairs 

 scattered over its upper surface, but most thickly on the fore part of 

 the ocular area. It is of a deep black-brown hue, and has two 

 parallel longitudinal stripes clothed with white hairs; these stripes 

 run to the eyes of the hinder row, and melt away insensibly into the 

 somewhat greyish rusty-yellow colour of the ocular area ; the black- 

 brown band between them is rather more than double their width, 

 but narrows a little at its hinder extremity : the margins of the 

 cephalothorax are black ; but there is a bordering of white hairs both 

 above and below them. 



The eyes are in the ordinary position ; the ocular area is broader 

 than long, and the length of the hinder row is less than that of the 

 anterior one ; the eyes of the intermediate row equally separate the 

 posterior and anterior ones, and each is placed a little within the 

 straight line formed by the laterals of these two rows on its side. 

 The height of the clypeus equals the diameter of one of the fore 

 central eyes ; these are very near to each other, but not quite 

 contiguous, and each is separated from the lateral eye of the same 

 row on its side by no more than one third the diameter of the 

 latter. 



The legs are strong, but not very long, nor greatly different in 

 length ; relatively to each other they are 4, 3, 1 , 2 ; their colour is 

 a dull yellow, faintly marked with a dusky hue, but scarcely annu- 

 lated ; they are clothed with a little greyish pubescence, and furnished 

 with spines, hairs, and bristles ; each tarsus terminates with two 

 rather long claws, pectinated, and with a strong and compact scopula 

 beneath them. 



The palpi are short and strong ; they are of a pale yellowish 

 colour, the digital joints being slightly brownish yellow ; the cubital 

 joints are thickly fringed and clothed above with strong white hairs, 

 among which, on the fore margin of the upperside of the joint, is a 

 strong, prominent, black, tapering bristle ; the radial joint is shorter 

 than the cubital, and has a small, dark-coloured, slightly curved, 

 and (apparently) blunt-pointed apophysis at its extremity on the 

 outer side, just, or nearly, behind which is a rather compact tuft of 

 straight black bristles ; there are also some other bristles (both black 

 and white) on other parts of the joint ; the digital joint is large, 



