1901.] ON NEW TRAP-BOOE SPIDERS. 207 



4. On some new Trap-door Spiders from China. 

 By R. I. PococK, F.Z.S. 



[Eeceived February 11, 1901.] 

 (Plate XXI.^) 



The most interesting species described in this paper are the two 

 discovered by Mr. J. La Touche and Mr. C. B, Eickett at Kuatun 

 in North-west Fokien. 



One of these, Halonojiroctus riclcetti, is the representative of a new 

 genus belonging to a specialized group of Ctenizidse, hitherto known 

 only from the Sonoran area of North America ; the other, LatoucJiia 

 fossoria,' is a more typical Ctenizoid apparently belonging to the 

 same genus as the spider that Simon erroneously identified as 

 Acattyma roretzi of L. Koch. The genus Latoucliia is related to 

 the Mediterranean genus Gyrtocarenum. The third genus, Nemesia, 

 has hitherto been regarded as confined to the Mediterranean 

 Eegion. The record of MacroiJiele from the Chinese area fills a gap 

 in our knowledge of the distribution of the genus, the represen- 

 tatives of which were previously known from the Mediterranean 

 Eegion, from Burma, Java, and New Zealand. Hence, assuming 

 that it had a northern origin, it is admissible to suppose that 

 MacroiJiele made its way into the Oriental Eegion and New 

 Zealand by way of China. Further collecting will, in all proba- 

 bility, show that both this genus and Nemesia have a continuous 

 distribution across Central Asia from China to the Mediterranean 

 area. 



Subfamily Halonopeoctinje, nov. 



In Mexico and the Southern States of North America there are 

 two peculiar genera of Spiders, referred to the family Ctenizidse, 

 and characterized by the remarkable modification in the shape and 

 other structural points of the abdomen. In the typical Ctenizidae, 

 as in most other Trap-door Spiders, the abdomen is tolerably 

 evenly oval, with the integument soft, smooth, and covered with 

 silky grey pubescence, the sigilla, or muscular impressions, on the 

 dorsal side being small and relatively inconspicuous. 



But in the genera above mentioned, namely Cydocosmia and 

 CJiorizops, the integument is of a leathery consistency, and is 

 folded into a number of narrow ridges separated by corresponding- 

 grooves, which, except in the ventral area behind the epigastric 

 fold where they are transverse, run in a longitudinal direction ^. 



^ For the explanation of the Plate, see p. 215. 



* A possible exception to this character is met with in Cydocosmia theveneti 

 of Simon, which is said to have the integument ungrooved. The abdomen of 

 the only known example, however, is described as " valde detritum." Hence 

 the absence of folds is perhaps attributable to badness of preservation. It is 

 possible, too, that the integument is sufficiently elastic to admit of considerable 

 stretching, in which case the folds might disappear under the influence of 

 distension of the abdomen. 



