ME. J. BLACKWALIi ON SOME TUSCAN SPIDERS. 409 



and of a reddish-brown colour, have a brownish-yellow process, whose 



extremity is the darkest, directed backwards from their anterior 



margin. 



I have much pleasure in associating with this fine species the 



name of that zealous entomologist Professor E. Perceval Wright, 



M.D., F.L.S., of Trinity College, Dublin, to whose liberality I am 



indebted for permission to describe the novel forms comprised in 



the highly interesting collection of Spiders made by him in the 



province of Lucca, 



G-enus Sphasus, Walclc. 



Sphasus italicus, Walck. Hist. Nat. des Insect. Apt. torn, i, p. 374.. 

 Sphasus gentilis, Koch, Arachn. Band v. p. 97, t. 170. f. 404. 

 Length of the female \ in. ; length of the cephalothorax \, breadth -jV 5 

 breadth of the abdomen -^^ '> length of an anterior leg f ; length of a 

 leg of the third pair 5. 

 A female of this species, described and figured by M. Koch, 

 was captured by Dr. Schucli in the Morea, and probably was not 

 adult ; indeed it was suspected by M. Koch to be an immature 

 specimen of Sphasus lineatus ; his words are, " vielleicht ist sie 

 das Junge dieser Art." A few particulars omitted by M. Koch 

 are here supplied : — The legs are long, slender, and provided with 

 long spines ; the first pair is the longest, then the second, and the 

 third pair is the shortest. Each lateral eye of the greatly curved 

 posterior row is seated on a tubercle ; and tlie posterior eyes of 

 the four constituting the trapezoid are the largest, and the an- 

 terior ones much the smallest of the eight. The sexual organs are 

 moderately developed, of a reddish-brown colour, and have a short, 

 brownish-yellow process directed backwards from their anterior 

 margin. 



The male, which appears to be unknown to arachnologists, is 

 smaller than the female, and its colours are so much darker as to 

 render the design formed by their distribution, particularly on 

 the abdomen, very obscure. The maxiUse and lip have- a brownish- 

 black hue — the former at the extremity and on the inner side, and 

 the latter at the apex, having a brownish-yellow tint. The palpi 

 have a brownish-black hue, the taper extremity of the digital 

 joint being pale brown ; the cubital and radial joints are short, 

 and the latter, which is the stronger, has some long hairs near its 

 base, on the inner side ; the digital joint is pyriform, and is com- 

 pact and pointed at its termination ; it is convex and hairy ex- 

 ternally, fringed with long hairs on its inner margin, concave 



