18 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Acadenvj. 



under part lias a dull reddisli-brown hue, obscurely spotted ■svith 

 yellowish-wliite, tliat of the branchial opercula being brown. The 

 sexual organs are highly developed, very prominent, much enlarged 

 at the extremity, which has a convexity on each side,^ and their 

 colour is dark red-brown. The cephalothorax is somewhat oval, 

 slightly compressed before, moderately rounded on the sides, convex, 

 glossv, with a large transverse indentation in the medial line, and is 

 of a dark red-brown colour, the medial region being the palest. The 

 falces are conical, rather prominent, and armed with a few teeth on 

 the inner surface : the maxilliB are obliquely truncated at the ex- 

 tremity, on the outer side, and slightly inclined towards the lip, which 

 is semicircular, but somewhat pointecl at the apex ; and the sternum 

 is oblong heart-shaped, with small eminences on the sides, opposite to 

 the legs. These parts have a yellowish-brown colour, the falces 

 being the darkest. The eyes are disposed on the anterior part of the 

 cephalothorax in two transverse rows, high above the frontal margin ; 

 the four intermediate ones form a square, the anterior ones, which are 

 seated on a small prominence, being the largest and darkest coloured 

 of the eight ; the eyes of each lateral pair are seated on a minute 

 tubercle, and are contiguous. The legs are long, slender, provided 

 vrith a few hairs, and are of a yellowish-brown hue, with red-brown 

 annuli ; the first pair is the longest, then the second, and the third 

 pair is the shortest ; each tarsus is tenninated by claws of the usual 

 number and structure. The palpi are short, of a yellowish-white 

 colour, with the exception of the radial and digital joints, which have 

 a dark-brown hue, and the latter has a slender, curved claw at its ex- 

 tremity. 



The male is smaller and darker coloured than the female, but its 

 legs are longer, an anterior one measuring ^V of an inch ; the large 

 conical protuberance is more erect, the annuli on the legs are scarcely 

 perceptible, except at the joints, and in the space surrounded by the 

 eyes there is a cone directed obliquely forwards, which is surmounted 

 by a few hairs. The design fonncd on the abdomen by the distribu- 

 tion of its colours is similar in both sexes. The humeral, radial, and 

 digital joints of the palpi are of a dark -brown colour, tinged with 

 red, and that of the cubital joint is yellowish -brown ; the radial joint 

 is produced at its extremity, on the outer side ; the digital joint is 

 oval, convex, and hairy externally, concave within, comprising the 

 palpal organs, which are well developed, complex in structure, and of 

 a red-brown colour. The convex side of the digital joints are directed 

 towards each other. 



[This spider is undoubtedly an Argyrodes, and very closely alKcd 

 to A. Syriaca (Camb.),- which it resembles in the very characteristic 



1 That on the left side of the specimen described appeared to be abnormal in 

 form. 



2 Spiders of Palestine and Sjnii, "Proceedings Zoological Society," 187f, 

 p. 279, pi. xiii., fig. 10. 



