398 nEV. O. p. CAMBRIDGE ON TWO NEW SPECIES 



Descriptions and Sketches of two new Species of Araneidea, with 

 Characters of a new Genus. By the Eev. 0. P. Camleidoe. 

 Communicated b}^ J. Salter, Esq., ¥.R.S. & L.S. 



[Bead February 4, 18G9.] 

 [Plate XIV.] 

 An interesting and valuable collection of Ceylon Araneidea, 

 received during the past year from Mr. Gr. H. K. Thwaites, has 

 enabled mo to supply what has been felt by arachnologista as a 

 " want " in tho practical study of arancology, namely, details of 

 a veritable " four-eyed " spider. Hitherto* all known spiders 

 have been characterized by the possession of two, six, or eight 

 eyes ; it was not unlikely, therefore, nor altogether unscientific, a 

 priori, to suspect the existence, and to expect at some time or other 

 the discovery, of spiders with four eyes, w hich should fill up the gap 

 between those with two and those with six eyes. Thus our veteran 

 and acute arachnologist, Mr. Blackwall (having examined one of 

 the species presently to be described, and confirmed my views of 

 its very striking characters), writes me word that he has " always 

 suspected the existence of spiders with four eyes," and considers 

 that this character should form the basis of a new " Tribe " of the 

 order Araneidea ; that order, then, would, in this view, comprise 

 four Tribes : — i. BinocuHna,\i\i\\ ttvo eyes ; ii. Quaternoculina, with 

 four eyes ; iii. SenocuUna, with six ; and iv. OctonocuUna, with 

 eitjfJit eyes. The scientific propriety of this division, simple and 

 obvious as it is, is more than questionable ; it is not, however, my 

 purpose to discuss liere the systematic value of the mere number 

 of the eyes, the object of the present paper being chiefly to 

 characterize the genus and give some details of the species formed 

 by the four-eyed specimens now under consideration : these pre- 

 sent, beyond tlie number of the eyes, some other very remarkable 

 characters, one of whicb is, as far as I am aware, unique — that is, 



* Eafincsquo, in ' An. GI6n. des Sc. Phys.' torn. viii. p. 88, 1821, described a 

 four-eyed spider — " Tessarops ; " but see a communication upon lliia by llio great 

 French arachnologist, Baron Walckenaer (An. de la Soc. Ent. do France, 

 1833, p. 441), where the correctness of Rafinesque is impugned in strong 

 language, and his four-eyed spider disposed of as the result of careless and inexact 

 observation. Eaflnesque, we may conclude, bore no very high character as a 

 natural-historian, since the Baron speaks of " la parole perilleuse de Eaflnesque ; " 

 there seems no doubt, in this case, but ■' Tessarops," whatever it miglit have been, 

 at all events was not a " four-eyed " species of Araneidea. 



