98 



SCORPIONS, PEDIPALPI AND SPIDERS COLLECTED BY DR WILLEY 



Order. PEDIPALPI. 

 Family. Thelyphonidae. 

 Genus. Abalius, Kraepelin. 

 Abalius willeyi, sp. n. 

 PI. X. Fig. 2. 



Colour: a uniform deep brown above, paler below and on the extremities of 

 the legs. 



Carapace rugose throughout, also granular laterally on the thoracic portion. Tergites 

 closely granular ; sternites rugose and finely granular laterally, smooth and punctured 

 in the middle ; genital operculum punctured in the middle, granular at the sides, with 

 a longish broad impression in the middle of its posterior half and lightly impressed on 

 each side of the median prolongation. 



Coxae of chelae smooth and punctured below, the process directed forwards, ex- 

 ternally convex, internally normally shouldered : trochanters smooth below and armed 

 with two spines, rugose and punctured above and armed with five spines, the angular 

 the longest and the anterior longer than either of the interior spines ; femur coarsely 

 punctured below and externally, smoother above, armed with two spines, the upper very 

 small ; tibia and hand sparsely punctured, tibial process with two spinules near the 

 apex on its posterior aspect. 



Legs : tibial spur and protarsal spur on 2nd, 3rd and 4th legs ; tarsus of 1st with 

 7th, 8th and 9th segments modified as represented in Figure 2, PL X. ; 2nd segment not 

 twice as long as broad, longer than 3rd, 3rd to 6th progressively decreasing in length. 



Total length of carapace and abdomen not including caudal feeler 22 mm., of 

 carapace 7 - 5. 



Loc. New Britain. 



Only two species of the genus Abalius have been hitherto described, namely, A. rohdei, 

 Kraepelin, from Papua, and A. samoanus, Kraepelin, from Upolu. This new species is 

 nearly allied to the latter, but certainly differs in the form of the tarsal segments of the 

 legs of the 1st pair. In A. samoanus the 8th segment is much shorter than the 7th and 

 much wider than long, whereas in A. willeyi the 8th is longer than the 7th and longer 

 than its basal width, the 7th and 8th being together much longer than the 5th and 6th, 

 and the 2nd segment only about one-third longer than the 3rd. In A. samoanus the 

 2nd segment is twice as long as the 3rd, and the 5th and 6th are as long as the 

 7th and 8th. 



Keyserling's species Thelyphonus insulanus (Die Arachniden Austral. 1885, p. 42, 

 PI. IV, Fig. 2) from the Fiji Islands and New Hebrides, whence the British Museum 

 has examples, does not belong to the genus Abalius as Kraepelin supposed would be 

 likely, but to Thelyphonus in the strict sense of the word. 



