96 



SCORPIONS, PEDIPALPI AND SPIDERS COLLECTED BY DR WILLEY 



Of the 36 species obtained in the island, 14 have been described as new. With 

 the exception of the one Attoid spider, Tarodes lineatus, which is the representative of 

 a new genus, all the new forms belong to genera which have a wide range in the 

 Indo and Austro-Malayan area, the only exception to the statement being furnished 

 by the Pedipalp Abalius willeyi, from New Britain, which belongs to a genus hitherto 

 only met with in New Guinea and Samoa. The rest of the species, too, are for the 

 most part either widely distributed themselves over the same area or belong to widely 

 ranging genera. In fact this collection supplies one more link in the chain of evidence 

 which proves that so far as the Arachnida, with the exception of some of the Scorpions, 

 are concerned there is no geographical barrier between the Oriental and Australian 

 regions of Sclater and Wallace. 



A few points of interest connected with the bionomics of some of the species 

 remain to be mentioned. Of these perhaps the most important are Dr Willey's dis- 

 covery of the cocooning habits of Fecenia, and of the nesting habits of Conothele. 

 Attention may also be drawn to the cocoons of Ordgarius which, I believe, have never 

 been hitherto described. 



Lastly, there is the remarkable stridulating organ found in Plexippus strididator. 

 Stridulating organs of various structures have been found in genera of many families 

 of Spiders, but none up to the present time in any member of the family Attidae. 

 Moreover the organ, consisting of a series of strong ridges on the lower side of the 

 mandible and of the serrula or finely-denticulated ridge which runs along the fore 

 edge of the maxilla, occupies a position which is unique in the order Araneae. 



List of the species obtained in New Britain : — 

 SCORPIONES. 



Hormurus australasiae. 



Pedipalpi. 



Abalius willeyi, sp. n. 

 Sarax sarawakensis. 



Araneae. 



Encyocrypta pictipes, sp. n. 

 Conothele arboricola, sp. n. 

 Nephila maculata. 

 Argiope magnified. 



„ picta. 

 Araneus caput-lupi. 

 Cyclosa insulana. 

 Argyroepeira grata, 



granulata. 

 Tetragnatha rubriventris. 

 Gyrtarachie tricolor. 

 Ordgarius bicolor, sp. n. 

 Gasteracantha brevispina. 



Gasteracantha taeniata karschii. 

 Actinacantha aciculata, sp. n. 

 Lathrodectus hasseltii. 

 Psechrus argentatus. 

 Fecenia angustata. 

 Oxyopes macilentus. 



„ papuanus. 

 Lycosa willeyi, sp. n. 

 Ctenus rufisternus, sp. n. 

 Heteropoda venatoria. 

 Pandercetes plumosus, sp. n. 

 Sparassits actaeon, sp. n. 

 Palystes ignicomus. 

 Thelcticopis ochracea, sp. n. 

 Tliomisus pustulosus. 

 Diolenius lugubris. 

 Tarodes lineatus, gen. et sp. n. 

 Zenodorus variatus, sp. n. 

 Bathippus proboscideus, sp. n. 

 Plexippus strididator, sp. n. 



