COLLECTED IN DUTCH NEW GUINEA. 457 



part above mentioned. Viewed from the side, it is nearly triangular as far as the 

 caudal portion, which projects from the narrow junction of the back with the underside. 

 The front forms one side of the triangle and is as deep as the triangle is long, the 

 cephalothorax being set on to it rather above the middle. As it slopes rather back- 

 wards the spinnerets, which are at the lower angle, lie below the middle of the side 

 forming the back. The third side slopes upwards from the spinnerets to the base of 

 the tail. 



The epigyne consists of a base formed of two convex pear-shaped bodies, the larger 

 rounded end below, situated one each side of an ovate hollow, the median area of 

 which is again convex. From the middle of the upperside of this base springs a 

 short, broad, straight-sided scape, which bends forward over the base. 



The measurements (in millimetres) are as follows : — 



Cephalothorax 2^ 



Abdomen 



Mandibles 



Coxa. 



Legs 1. 



2. 

 3. 



4. 

 Palpi 



In shape this is rather like Prof. Kulczynski's Araneus caudifer (Res. de I'exp. Neerl. 

 a la N. Guinea, 1903, vol. v. pt. 4, Zool. p. 482, pi. xx. figs. 52-54), but smaller, the 

 legs being only about half as long; the colouring of the abdomen silvery instead of 

 reddish-brown, the rear median eyes half their diameter apart instead of more than 

 the diameter, and the median area narrower instead of wider posteriorly, also the 

 epigyne has a shorter scape and a bulbous base which is absent from the other. 



Group Gasteracantheae. 

 Genus Gasteracantha Sund, 



Gasteracantha ceepidopiiora. 



Gasteracantha crepidophora Cambridge, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1879, p. 267 ; Thorell, Ragni Malesi 

 e Papuasi, vol. iii. 1881, p. 30. 



Nine females. 



This species seems fairly common in New Guinea and the neighbouring islands. 

 VOL. 5X. — PART XIV. No. 5. — July, 1915. 3 t 



