40 
Annals of the Transvaal Museum 
Mr S. C. Cronwright-Schreiner, in writing of the living animal as found at 
Hanover, described it as "of a most brilliant yellow, with a heavy black band 
down the back of the abdomen while the legs are covered with long yellow 
hair, which in the male, becomes a distinct mane and is iridescent. As it lies 
on the sand on a hot day, sparkling in the sunshine, it is a most exquisite 
creature 1 .” 
This variety I now designate 5 . chelicornis var. pubescens [PI. II, fig. 2]. 
Its most marked character is a dense pile of short pale hairs on the upper 
surfaces of the patella and tibia of the palp in the adult male, and to a less 
extent in the female. The sides of the head-plate and chelicerae are thickly, 
though rather shortly, bearded. The fringes of hair on the hind legs are 
particularly heavy, extending in attenuated form as far as the distal segments 
of the tarsi. The lateral black bands of the abdomen commence to merge on 
the fourth abdominal tergite, and fusion is quite complete on the fifth tergite. 
The terminal fang of the lower jaw is long, the distance from the tip of the 
fang to the apex of the first tooth being equal to about twice the distance 
between the apices of the two large teeth. In the single series of the upper 
jaw, the distance between the first and second teeth is about 1^ times 
the distance between the second and fourth teeth. This variety is known to 
me from De Aar (S. C. Cronwright-Schreiner and Miss E. Friedlander), and 
presumably the Hanover specimens are referable thereto. We have female 
examples which seem to belong to the same variety from Dikkop Flats near 
Grahamstown (Miss J. Harris), and from Zandkraal near Steytlerville (Miss 
A. Geard). Also, Dr Purcell’s records from Namaqualand, Kenhardt, and 
Willowmore divisions are probably based on this variety. 
According to Kraepelin’s account in Das Tierreich, the typical form of the 
species is coloured quite differently, much as in the following form now 
named 5 . chelicornis var. rufescens [PI. II, fig. 3]. This variety is known to me 
from Longhope (Miss E. Abrahamson), and Dirkskraal, Somerset East dist. 
(B. Marais). The upper surfaces of the patella and tibia of the palp are quite 
devoid of the pile of short hairs that occurs in pubescens. The sides of the 
head -plate and chelicerae are not bearded. All the hairs of the mane on the 
hind legs are. white, at any rate in their distal portions, but the hairs situated 
on the broader part of the mane are magenta coloured in the basal half of 
each hair. The hairs on the sides of the abdomen are quite white. The surfaces 
generally are dull brown, more darkly so on the tibia and tarsus of the palp: 
the pale brown mesial area of the abdomen superiorly extends over the first 
seven tergites, being bordered on each side by a black stripe, and posteriorly 
by a black patch which covers the hind tergites. 
The jaw characters are similar to those of pubescens. 
Another distinct variety occurs at Kakamas (Miss H. C. Olivier). It differs 
from the two just described principally in the spacing of the teeth of the single 
series of the upper jaw: the distance between the first and second teeth is less 
than the distance between the second and fourth teeth; in the lower jaw, the 
distance from the tip of the fang to the apex of the first tooth is about equal 
to if times the distance between the apices of the two large teeth. The appen- 
dages are pale yellowish (in spirits) : the posterior tergites are not so deeply 
blackened as in pubescens, yet the infuscation extends considerably forwards, 
the mesial pale brown area only reaching backwards over the first four 
abdominal tergites. The mane of the hind legs is not so strongly developed 
1 "Some Arachnids at Hanover, Cape Colony,” by S. C. Cronwright-Schreiner, 
in the Popular Science Monthly, December, 1902. 
