511 



has described and figured under the name of n L. malmignaitus, Var. 

 tropica" ') , is by no means identical with the European L. malmig- 

 natus Walck. or L. 13-guttatus (Eossi). Its way of living appears 

 to be different from that of the ordinary "marmignatto", for it is 

 said to dwell on trees, bushes and herbs, whereas this latter or L. 

 13-guttatus is stated to live in the open fields or under stones, shea- 

 ves of grain and the like. To say nothing of the design formed by 

 the distribution of the colours on the abdomen, which in normally 

 marked specimens deviates considerably from that of L. 13-guttatus, 

 the vulva also in van Hasselt's species is somewhat different, being 

 formed of a transverse, deep fovea, which is broadest in the middle 

 and tapers towards the ends, and the anterior margin of which is 

 slightly sinuous, while the posterior margin forms an arc with its 

 convexity backwards and is not incised triangularly in the middle. 

 Of this species Dr van Hasselt has kindly sent me four females : 

 they are smaller than L. 13-guttatus the cephalothorax only 3 

 millim. long, the l:st pair of legs 16 '/ s to 17 '/ 2 millim., their tibia 

 about 4 and their patella about l l / 2 millim. As in L. 13-guttatus, 

 the eyes are disposed in two parallel rows, which, when viewed from 

 above, are slightly curved backwards; the distance between the two 

 lateral eyes is a trifle greater than that between the anterior and 

 posterior centre eyes; the anterior row is slightly curved downward, 

 and its lateral eyes are situated a trifle farther from its centre eyes 

 than these latter from each other; the posterior centre eyes are con- 

 siderably more distant (1 '/ 2 times or twice as far) from the posterior 

 lateral eyes than from each other. This malmignattus , var. tro- 

 pica van Hass. , is undoubtedly identical with Aranea curacaviensis 

 Mull. 2 ) and Theridion curassavicum Hering, Ozan. 3 ), and may there- 

 fore for the present be called L. curacaviensis (Mull.) 1776. It ap- 



1) Loc. cit, p. 62, PI. V, figg. 1—6. 



2) "Ar. Curacaviensis: Klein, und nicht viel grosser als erne mittelniassige 

 Hausspinne ; der Farbe nach braun , an jeder Seite ein Pomeranzen-flek , daher sie 

 auf der Insel Curacao Oranjes heissen; unter den Wurzeln und Krautern; deren 

 Biss Menschen und Thiere unsinnig rnacht". P. L. S. Muller, Linnet Vollstand. 

 Natur-Syst. , Supplera. u. Eegister Band, p. 342 (according to Gceze, Lister's 

 Naturgesch. d. Spinn., p. 266). 



3) Conf. Ozanam, Etude sur le venin des Arachn., p. 29. Hering, whose 

 work on this spider is unknown to me, has, according to Ozanam, not given any 

 description of it, but only treated of the effects of its bite. 



65 



