788 



sides yellow, mottled with numerous pale-yellowish spots ;. 

 inferior surface concolorous with sides, but having in addition, 

 a broad, longitudinal, median smoky bar, which latter ter- 

 minates some little distance from the spinnerets (fig, 16). 

 Epigyniim simple, composed of two widely separated, obliquely 

 directed oval pits (fig. 17). Spinnerets short, yellow, ancL 

 clothed with yellow and dark hair. 



/i<7&.— Flat Rock Hole, Musgrave Ranges, July 24, 1914.. 

 Two specimens, one mature and the other half-grown. In 

 reference to the larger specimen the collector's note reads, 

 "Out of hole with trap-door." The trap-door, a specimen of 

 which was enclosed, is of the wafer type, and is made up of 

 layers of silk, in the meshes of which fine gravel has been 

 incorporated; it lias a circumference of 42 mm. ' A third 

 specimen, also from Flat Rock Hole, but without date, is 

 considerably smaller than the one described and figured as 

 the type; further, the black abdominal spotl^ ar^g very small 

 and very few in number, and the transverse bars are absent, 

 but the epgynum is fully developed and is exactly like the 

 form described and figured herewith. Apparently the species 

 is variable. 



Family OXYOPIDAE. 



Amongst the material collected by Captain White there^ 

 are a number of small spiders which, on account of the large 

 size of the second pair of eyes, suggest affinity to Simon's genus 

 Hostus; in fact, when I first examined them I thought I 

 should have to record the occurrence of that Madagascan genus 

 in Australia. A closer examination, however, when engaged 

 upon the task of preparing the present paper, brought to light 

 characters excluding this species from that and every other 

 genus included in the family Oxyojpidae. The family is well 

 distributed over the globe, but it is a small one, consisting of 

 (including the new genus described below) only eleven genera. 

 The majority of the species — and they are not many — are 

 remarkable for their beauty and gracefulness, the compactness 

 of the grouping of the eyes, length of maxillae and labium, 

 and also for their long legs. In the species now under review 

 the eyes, as already pointed out, bear a superficial resemblance 

 to those of the Madagascan genus, but contrary to that or any 

 other Oayo'pid, the labium, instead of being truncated, is 

 coniform, and therefore has the apex obtusely pointed, while 

 the legs are only moderately long. It is for the reason of its 

 somewhat superficial resemblance to Simon's genus, quoted 

 above, that I propose for the reception of this interesting 

 Araneiad the generic name Pseudohostus, the description of 

 which I append herewith. 



