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Two NEW Species of Lycosa from South Australia. 

 By R. H. PuLLEiNE, M.B., CM. 



[Read November 10, 1921.] 

 Plate V. 



Up to the present seventy species of Lycosa have been 

 described as Australian. This is probably only a fraction of 

 the whole of this immense genus existing on our continent. 

 Owing to the great powers of locomotion of the young Lycosa 

 it is not safe to view every Australian species as endemic 

 without further investigation. Some eremeian species also 

 show variations in colour of almost specific value; but con- 

 necting variations can be found which even invalidate their 

 varietal value. The two species described are certainly new, 

 and the types are preserved in formalin in the collection of 

 the South Australian Museum. 



I have found that the species of Lycosa described by 

 H. R. Hogg (P.Z.S. Lond., 1905, vol. ii., p. 569), and pre- 

 served in the South Australian Museum collection, are, from 

 long immersion in alcohol, in poor condition for identification. 



Lycosa skeeti, n. sp. 



9 . Cephalo-thorax light brown, clothed with silvery- 

 grey hair; a darker brown median streak with four similar | 

 streaks on each side. 



Mandibles concolorous, clothed with long silvery hair. [ 



Lip maxillae and sternum dark brown. ' • 



Abdomen light brown above, dark brownish-black below, li 



spinnerets of the same colour, lighter in shade. 



Legs and palpi the same colour as the thorax. They are 

 clothed with fine silvery hairs interspersed with strong black 

 spines. 



The eye area is prominent, and the arrangement of the 

 eyes, which are black and shining, is of the ordinary Lycosa 

 type. In the eye area and on the clypeus are strong, erect, 

 yellowish-brown hairs. 



The markings of the dorsum of the abdomen are as 

 follow: — Posteriorly, two nearly straight black parallel lines 

 meeting at their ends; anteriorly to this, three parallel sinuate 

 lines; in front, two lateral black, forked lines, not meeting 

 medially. 



