DESCRIPTION OF GENERA AND SPECIES. 209 
gibbous, somewhat longer than wide, obtusely triangular at the tips, which are yellow; the 
bases a yellowish brown. 
Eyrs: Fig. 8b. Ocular quad narrower in front than behind, sides decidedly longer 
than rear; MF on tubercles, which project over the face; separated by about 1.5 diameter; 
less in size than MR, which are separated by at least 1.5 diameter. Side eyes on tubercles; 
SF, which are smaller, are at the base thereof, and well in front. The space between MF 
and SF is but little, if any, greater than that between MF; the space between MR and 
SR, on the contrary, is much greater than between MR; the front row is slightly procurved, 
almost aligned; the hind row, which is considerably longer, is much procurved; clypeus 
height at least 1.5 diameter MF. The eyes are on black bases; the color of the face and 
maxillee is yellow. 
Lnas: 1, 2, 4, 3; stout for such a small species, well provided with bristles and spines; 
color yellow, with dark annuli at tips and middle of joints; palps lighter yellow, with less 
decided annuli; mandibles yellow, mottled with brown, rather long, somewhat conical, 
slightly retreating backward. 
Aspomen: A long oval, truncate at the base, but little arched upon the dorsum, except 
with gravid females; dorsum marked by prominent shoulder humps, and two smaller 
tubercles on each side. The dorsal field is brown, relieved with metallic white, and has a 
black shield shaped folium, scalloped upon the edges, and tipped with white marks in the 
middle of the apical half; this part of the abdomen is arched to the spinnerets, which are 
distal and ‘blackish brown; the yenter is blackish, mottled with silvery white or yellow; 
the epigynum has a wide, shortened scapus (Fig. 8d), hollowed beneath like the half of -a 
bowl. 
Disrrisution: The Southern United States; collected in the District of Columbia, 
Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, southward to Florida, and so along the Gulf Coast through 
Georgia, Alabama, and New Orleans. 
Genus GASTERACANTHA, Larrerrre, 1831. 
This strongly marked genus is at once distinguished by the peculiar character of the 
abdomen, which is broader than long, with a hard, glossy skin, punctuated with many 
dimplelike depressions. The venter is subconical, and the spinnerets placed at the apex 
thereof. In the female many of the species have a dorsal field prolonged into yarious 
corneous, more or less pointed, tubercles. The head is wide, almost as wide as the ceph- 
alothorax, steeply elevated above the flattened corselet, and with hard, glossy skin. The 
eyes are divided into three groups, as in Epeira, but the intervening spaces are relatively 
much greater. The fourth leg is relatively longer than the others; the tibie slightly 
curved; ordinary spines are lacking, but the legs are armored with long, aculeate, spinelike 
bristles. The males are very small, but roughly resemble the female, the abdomen com- 
monly lacking the pointed dorsal cones. 
No. 63. Gasteracantha pallida ©. Kocn. Plate XIV, Fig. 8. 
1850. Gasteracantha pallida, Kocm C. . Die Arachn., xi., p. 60, pl. 874, Fig. 881. 
1889. Gasteracantha pallida, Marx . . Catalogue, p. 539. 
Frmare: Total length, 6 mm.; cephalothorax, 2.75 mm. long, 2.5 wide across the face ; 
abdomen, 5.5 mm. long, 8.5 mm. wide across the middle, 4 mm. across the front, 3.5 mm. 
across the dorsal apex. 
Crrmatormorax: Corselet quite concealed by the overhanging base of the abdomen, is 
rounded at the sides, flat and smooth on the dorsum, which slopes downward from the 
caput to the base. The head rises so prominently as to hide the corselet when viewed in 
front; the head is almost as wide in front as the cephalothorax; the forehead is high, the 
distance from the sides to the vertex being considerably greater than from the margins of 
