7952 



Arachnida. 



front row are the largest of the eight, though but very little larger 

 than the corresponding ones of the hinder row. 



Legs furnished with hairs and spines ; two parallel rows of the latter 

 extend along the under side of the tibiae and metatarsi of the 

 first and second pairs. Colour pale yellowish brown, with the 

 femoral joints, in most specimens of adult males, more or less 

 suffused with brownish black. Relative length, 2, 1, 4, 3. 



Palpi short. Colour yellowish brown, and, excepting the humeral 

 joint, suffused with brownish black. The radial joint has a large 

 crescent-shaped projection on its under side, and on its outer 

 side a strong one, ending in a long, fine, pointed, nearly straight, 

 black spine, which projects along the side of the digital joint. 

 This last joint is oval ; the palpal organs contained in it are well 

 developed, prominent, and with a filiform black spine, curved 

 from their base round the inner side to their extremity, and so 

 down the outer side. 



Falces in most specimens slightly darker coloured than the maxillae, 

 labium and sternum, which are of a pale yellowish brown, the 

 latter obscurely freckled with brown. None of these parts offer 

 any variation from the generic type. 



Abdomen of a dull yellow-brown colour, thinly clothed with short 

 dark hairs. The upper side is obscurely freckled with brown, 

 and in some specimens the margins, especially near the cephalo- 

 thorax, mottled with whitish. Two fine dark lines commencing 

 near the cephalothorax join in an acute angle at rather more than 

 halfway to the spinners, forming a longish fusiform band ; in 

 strongly marked specimens this band is rather darker coloured 

 than the rest. On the hinder half of the abdomen are several 

 transverse dark lines; the first interrupted by the fusiform band, 

 the rest at regular intervals towards the spinners. These lines 

 and the fusiform band are obsolete in some specimens, and 

 variously defined, from a mere spot or two to perfect lines in 

 others. The under part and sides are spotted and streaked with 

 dark brown, in various degrees of depth and distinctness in dif- 

 erent specimens. The branchial opercula are reddish brown. 

 The five depressed dots on the front half of the upper side of 

 the abdomen, 'so characteristic of the genus Thomisus, are also 

 plainly marked in this species. 



The female is lighter coloured than the male, and almost entirely 

 unicolorous; the characteristic markings generally visible in the 

 male being in most females obsolete. The sexual organs, which 



