758 MR. F. 0. PICKARD CAMBRIDGE ON [June 16, 
A single example of this fine Theraphosid, of the female sex, 
was taken in a huge web of the “ Agelenoid ” type in the damp low- 
lying portion of the forest near Santarem. Many more of the 
webs were seen, but the tube is spun so far down amongst the 
roots of the trees that it is next to impossible to secure specimens, 
for they retire with lightning speed on the smallest sign of danger. 
MELODEUS, gen. nov. 
Posterior spinning-mamille as long as or shorter than abdomen ; 
segments equal in length. Legs shorter, stout, especially the femora. 
Fang-groove with a single row of teeth on outer margin and numerous 
cuspules towards base. Tarsi i. and ii. distinctly scopulate’, with 
central series of long sete. Cova of pedipalp furnished with from 
7-10 curved claviform spines. Base of mandible with 3 or 4 isolated 
bristles incrassate at the base. Diameter of anterior central eyes 
equal to or scarcely less than axis of anterior laterals. 
MELODEUS SANGUINEUS, n.sp. (Plate XX XIII. figs. 1, 4, 7, and 
Plate XXXYV. fig. 1.) 
@. 24 mm. long. Type in coll. Brit. Mus. Nat. Hist. 
Hab. Santarem, Lower Amazons. 
@ .—Colour. Carapace bright orange-red, clothed with short, 
silky, rufous hairs. Abdomen black, clothed with dense pubes- 
cence, furnished with erect black hairs, having on either side two 
separate longitudinal bands of fine transverse obliquely dull orange 
blotches, interrupted towards the ventral surface. Ventral area 
clothed with mouse-grey pubescence. Legs short, stout, yellow- 
brown, darker towards their extremities, clothed with fine black 
hairs and rufous pubescence. Sternum and mandibles deep brown, 
the latter darker at apex, both clothed with black hairs. 
Carapace a little longer than broad; cephalic area not quite 
three-quarters the length of carapace. Central fovea deep, re- 
curved ; thoracic striz well marked. Ocular tumulus slightly raised 
above.the level of the carapace; three times as long as its width. 
Anterior centrals large, circular, half a radius apart, rather less 
from the anterior laterals. Anterior laterals ellipsoidal, their axis 
equal to the diameter of anterior centrals. Posterior centrals 
smallest, oval, half their diameter from anterior centrals, almost in 
contact with posterior laterals. Posterior laterals ellipsoidal, their 
axis less than that of anterior laterals, almost in contact with the 
latter; anterior row almost straight. (N.B. The eyes vary in 
different specimens.) 
Mandibles parallel-sided, slightly enlarged towards apex. Fang- 
groove armed on inner side with 11 stout conical teeth; its floor 
studded towards the base with numerous minute cusps. Outer 
margin fringed with rufous hairs, of which 8 towards the base are 
isolated, separate and thickened towards their base. 
Sternum longer than broad, set with black hairs, each springing 
1 Tn immature examples the scopula is entirely absent. 
