1881.] REV. O. p. CAMBRIDGE ON NEW ARANEIDEA. 769 



culations. The legs are furnished thinly with hairs, some of which 

 are short and grey. 



The palpi are short ; the digital joint tumid and longer than 

 the radial, which is also longer than the cubital. They are similar 

 in colour to the legs. 



T\\e/alces are of great length, slender, and rather divergent at the 

 extremities, which have also a backward bend ; their length is 

 about equal to that of the Spider itself ; towards the base, on the 

 upper side, is a strongish conical point or prominence. Their colour is 

 similar to that of the cephalothorax, indistinctly but broadly banded 

 with a deeper hue, furnished thinly with grey hairs, and armed on 

 the inner sides throughout with a longitudinal series of denticula- 

 tions increasing in strength from the base to the extremity, being 

 exceedingly minute at the base, but rather long and strong at the 

 beginning of the divergent portion, whence to the fang is a series of 

 another kind with a more direct transverse or lateral direction, and 

 giving a comb-like appearance. The fang is strong and much curved 

 at its point. 



The maxiUcE are similar in colour to tVie falces, and the labium 

 and sternum are of a darker hue ; the form of these parts is described 

 in the generic characters given above. 



The abdomen, whose height is greater than its length, is yellow- 

 brown above, much darker on the sides, the one being separated from 

 the other by a bluntly dentated or zigzag line of short white hairs. 

 Some indistinct markings formed by lines of white hairs are also 

 visible on the upper side. The underside is dark brownish, varie- 

 gated with bars and blotches of white hairs. The spinners are com- 

 pactly grouped ; those of the inferior pair are two-jointed, and are 

 the longest and much the strongest of the six. 



A single immature example of this most remarkable Spider, found 

 in Madagascar, was kindly sent to me by Mr. T. Workman of Belfast, 

 who has also permitted me to describe and figure it. It is of great 

 interest, not only on account of its singularly elevated caput, but 

 because the elevation is of a type quite distinct from any thing I have 

 ever before met with. Some species of Walckenaera have the upper 

 part of the caput elevated to a great height, and the eyes are (some 

 or all) carried up with it ; but in the present Spider not only the 

 eyes but tlie falces also are carried up, necessitating the extraordinary 

 development of the latter to enable them to meet and cooperate with 

 the other parts of the mouth. These would otherwise have been left 

 open and exposed, and the Spider itself would have been in danger 

 of starvation-, since the anterior extremities of the falces, with their 

 fangs and teeth, are the main instruments for holding and com- 

 pressing the Spider's prey, the juices of which flow thence into the 

 mouth itself 



I have no hesitation in founding a new genus on this Spider ; and 

 very probably the future discovery of other, allied, species will neces- 

 sitate the formation of a new family for them. At present I would 

 place it in the family Theridiidse, in a separate group, near the genera 

 Argyrodes, Latr., and Ariamnes, Thor. 



