TWO NEW SPECIES OF EHAX. 363 



yellowish white, which colour spreads dorsally forwards to form 

 a triangular patch ending in a blunt point on the fourth segment 

 from the last. 



The ocular tubercle is very smooth, of a bright green colour, 

 oval and transverse, the eyes being larger than in the last-named 

 species, and the interval between them being decidedly less than 

 their diameter. 



The nearest species I can find to this is B. melanojpyga, Walter*, 

 but there are differences which must, at least at present, be con- 

 sidered as specific. Eor instance, in i2. melanopyga^ the white 

 patch round the anus runs forward right along the dorsal 

 abdominal surface ; it, however, shows signs of narrowing 

 before reaching the cephalothorax. The colour on the femora 

 of the pedipalps and first legs in It. melanopyga is described by 

 Walter as a smoke-grey {Bauchgrau) ; this smoke-grey must 

 have been very faint, as the zoological artist Sokolovski has not 

 given a hint of it in his drawing ; all the legs are a uniform 

 yellow. 



In the case of each of these new species, that nearest 

 in character is also nearest in geographical distribution. The 

 new R. nigrocincta and the B. annulata of Simon, with which 

 it is most nearly akin, were both found in India, about 200 

 miles apart. And, again, Dr. Walter's B. melanopyga was found 

 by him near Askabad, 50 miles from Greogh Teppe. 



As long as the animals remain so rare it is obviously futile 

 to discuss the question as to whether any new discoveries are 

 only varieties or new species. Provided they are sufficiently 

 distant from one another, and show any striking differences of 

 coloration, there is nothing for it but to label them as new^ 

 leaving it to future discoverers of the transition forms to draw 

 the lines between the species. 



The specimens shown in Plate XXYI. have been deposited 

 as types in the Natural History Museum at South Kensington. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE XXVI. 

 Fig. 1. Ehax Howesii. Dorsal and ventral aspects. 

 2. Ehax nigrocincta. Dorsal and ventral aspects. 



N.B. — In the drawings the femora of the first and second limbs have beaa 

 foreshortened. 



* Zool. Jahrb. iv.pt. 1, pp. 1095-1109. 



LINN. JOTJJiN. — ZOOLOGT, VOL. XXIV. 29 



