IN NEW BRITAIN, THE SOLOMON ISLANDS, LOYALTY ISLANDS, ETC. 103 



Suborder. ARACHNOMORPHAE. 



Family. Argiopidae. 



(= Epeiridae of recent authors.) 



Genus. Nephila, Leach. 



Aranea maculata Fabr., Ent. Syst. II., p. 425 (1793). 

 Loc. New Britain. 



Widely distributed throughout tropical Asia. 



Mr Willey also obtained in the same island two examples of a variety of this 

 species somewhat resembling that known as walckenaerii, and differing from the typical 

 form in the absence of spots on the abdomen, the lower surface of which has a broad 

 undivided yellow band extending from the vulva to the spinners and a corre- 

 sponding band on the dorsal side, which, however, is divided longitudinally by darker 

 median stripes. 



Nephila venosa, L. Koch. 



Verh. k.-k. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien xvn., p. 183, 1867 ; Die Arachn. Austral., p. 148, 

 PI. XII, Fig. 1 (1872). 

 Loc. Isle of Pines. 



Previously known from Queensland, Papua, Fiji, Samoa, etc. 



Nephila insularis, Keyserling. 



Die Arachniden Austral. 1887, p. 215, PI. XIX, Fig. 5. 

 Loc. Lifu, Loyalty Islands. 



Recorded from the Loyalty Islands by Keyserling. 



Genus. Argiope, Sav. in Aud. 

 Argiope aetherea (Walck.). 



Ins. Apt. ii., p. 112, 1841. 

 Loc. Lifu, Loyalty Islands. 



Originally recorded from New Guinea, subsequently obtained in Cape York, etc. 



Argiope magnifica, L. Koch. 



Die Arachniden Austral. 1871, p. 27, PI. II, Fig. 6. 

 Loc. New Britain. 



Dr Thorcll (Ann. Mus. Genova xvn., p. 63, 1881) cites the name magnifica 

 amongst the synonyms of A. aemula, Walck.; but examples of magnifica in the British 

 Museum from Rockhampton and New Guinea may be recognised from examples labelled 

 aemula by Thorell from Burma in that the yellow bands on the lower side of the 

 abdomen meet behind and above the mamillae in a broad semicircular yellow band. 



Argiope picta, L. Koch. 



Die Arachniden Austral. 1871, p. 33, PI. Ill, Fig. 3. 

 Loc. New Britain. 



Recorded from Queensland, New Guinea, Aru, etc. 



