THE GREAT INDIAN SPIDERS. 123 
to describe these three new forms, together with one from Ceylon, and 
to give a brief recapitulation of the history of the genus and of the 
habits of the species, so that those willing to avail themselves of the 
opportunity of collecting material of this group may know where to search 
for specimens, and may learn what has been ascertained up to the present 
time of the species. It is hoped, too, that they may be able to determine 
the specimens they procure, and, particularly, may be brought to realize that 
in all probability many more specific representatives of this genus exist than 
have hitherto been discovered, so that the trouble of collecting even in 
localities where these spiders have already been found will be well repaid 
by results, 
Apart from the chance that it offers of bringing new species to light, the 
acquisition of fresh material will teach usa great deal about such matters 
as the variations to which these spiders ave subject as they, pass from ihe 
young to the adult condition, and of the differences that obtain between the 
two sexes both before and after maturity. 
For example, out of the four species that are here recorded from S$, India, 
we only know the two sexes in one instance, that is to say, in the case of 
P. regalis, Of the others, P. vittata is represented in the British Museum 
collection by a single male, P. metallica by a single female, and P. formosa 
by several females but no male. Again, the alleged Penang species 
P. striata is also only known from the female sex. This is true as well of the 
Ceylon species P. ornata, although fortunately in the case of the remaining 
two species from this island, namely, P. fasciata and P. subfusca, we possess 
examples of both sexes, And since, owing to the great sexual differences 
that spiders present, our knowledge of a species is very incomplete until both 
male and female have been captured, itis clear that much still remains to 
be accomplished in the case of more than half the species that have been 
established. 
Judging of the species of Pwcilotheria of which the malesand females are. 
known, it may be asserted with regard to specimens of the former sex that 
they resemble the females in the coloration of the lower surface of the body 
and limbs, but that the wpper surface is much more uniformly tinted, the 
pale bands and patches being far less clearly defined. They also resemble 
the females in the development of the femoral fringes on the legs ; but they 
differ strikingly from them in the much smaller size of the body and the 
relatively much greater length of the limbs, and also, as in the case of all 
spiders, by the presence of the so-called palpal organ on the tarsal segment of 
the palpus or short limbs of the first pair. This is the intromittent organ of 
the male, and in Pecilotheria takes the form of a horny pear-shaped structure 
w:th three sharp crests running spirally round its narrow apical portion, 
The earliest known species of the genus Pecilotheria was described by 
Latreille as Mygale fasctata, and was based upon the figure of a large spider 
