Blackwall — Sjnders Captured in the Seychelles Islands. 7 



front, are much the largest, and are prominent, pellucid, and almost 

 in contact ; on each side of the tipper part of the cephalic region three 

 eyes are placed, in the form of an irregular triangle, on small tuher- 

 clcs seated on confluent black spots, the intermediate eye, constitut- 

 ing the vertex of an obtuse angle, being the smallest of the eight. 

 The cephalothorax is somewhat quadrate, convex, glossy, slightly 

 rounded on the sides and at the base, and moderately elevated in the 

 cephalic region. The falces are small, subcorneal, and inclined to- 

 wards the sternum, which is broad, convex, and heart-shaped ; the 

 raaxillse are short, rounded at the extremity, and inclined towards 

 the lip, which is somewhat quadrate, being broader at the base than 

 at the apex. The legs are slender, and provided with hairs and long- 

 spines, two parallel rows of the latter extending along the inferior 

 surface of the tibise and metatarsi of the first and second ,pairs ; each 

 tarsus is terminated by two minute, curved claws, below which there 

 is a small black scopula. The abdomen is long, subcylindrical, and 

 has a few short, pale hairs distributed over its surface. The superior 

 spinners are the longest, and their terminal joint, which is pointed, 

 has the spinning-tubes arranged on its inferior surface. The palpi of 

 the specimen from which the description was made were very timid, 

 but the palpal organs were not developed, indicating that it probably 

 had to undergo its final change of integument before it arrived at 

 maturity ; the radial was stronger than the cubital joint, and promi- 

 nent in front. 



Pamily THOMISID^. 



Genus Thomisus, Walch. 



Thomistjs iNSTJLAEis, n. sp. [Xysticus, Koch]. Plate 1, fig. 6. 



Length of the female, -gTi-ths of an inch ; length of the cephalo- 

 thorax, iV; breadth, xV; breadth of the abdomen, -fV; length of an an- 

 terior leg, -fis ; length of a leg of the third pair, iV- 



The eyes are disposed on the anterior part of the cephalothorax in 

 two transverse curved rows, forming a crescent whose convexity is 

 directed forwards ; the eyes of each lateral pair are larger than the 

 intermediate ones, and are seated on tubercles united at their bases, 

 the anterior ones being the largest, and the intermediate eyes of the 

 posterior row the smallest of the eight. The cephalothorax is convex, 

 glossy, somewhat compressed before, truncated in front, rounded on 

 the sides, abruptly depressed at the base, and has a few fine bristles 

 directed forward from its anterior margin; its colour is red-brown, 

 mottled with pale red and yellowish-browji ; it is darkest on each side 

 of the posterior slope, and the lateral margins are black ; a broad band, 

 which extends from the eyes along the middle to its base, is of a 

 yellowish- white colour in the cephalic region, and is strongly tinged 

 with red on the posterior slope, at the commencement of which it is 

 somewhat contracted ; the anterior part of the baud comprises two 

 oblong red-brown spots whose pointed anterior extremities extend to 



