74 
Annals of the Transvaal Museum. 
DESCRIPTION OF TWO TRAPDOOR SPIDERS FROM PRETORIA 
(FEMALE OF ACANTHODON PRETORIAE POC. AND 
STASIMOPUS ROBERTSI, N. Sp.). 
By John Hewitt, B.A. 
THE SUPPOSED FEMALE OF ACANTHODON PKETOBIAE POC. 
In the Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 7, 1, p. 319, Mr. Pocock described a single 
male trap-door spider from Pretoria under the name of AcantJiodon pre- 
toriae, and apparently the species has not been mentioned since. The 
recent addition to our collections of a very fine specimen of a female 
Acanthodon taken by Mr. Jenkins in the neighbourhood of his residence 
in Park Street (Pretoria) gives me an opportunity of describing what I 
believe to be the female of this species. 
We have no male Acanthodon in the collection, but there is another 
female specimen of the same species from Villieria (a Pretoria suburb). 
Colour . — Carapace pale-yellow translucent, the chelicerae and legs 
light brown, and the abdomen dull brown. 
Carapace . — Equal in length to the patella, tibia, and half the meta- 
tarsus of the first leg ; practically equal to the tibia and metatarsus of the 
fourth leg. 
Eyes . — Width of ocular area slightly exceeding the length ; distance 
between outer margins of the two frontal eyes appreciably less than between 
outer margins of the antero-median eyes of the posterior group, and this 
latter distance slightly less than that between the outer margins of the 
postero-median eyes ; antero-median eyes of posterior group slightly more 
than a diameter apart, their distance from postero-lateral eyes of the 
same side two and a half to three times the diameter of the antero-median 
eye ; distance between postero-median eyes slightly less than that between 
postero-median and postero-lateral of the same side. 
Postero-median eyes considerably smaller than any of the others ; 
frontal eyes looking obliquely forwards. 
Legs . — Fourth the longest ; third the shortest, its femur, patella, 
and tibia very stout ; tibia of first leg armed below with about fifteen 
spines anteriorly and twenty-four posteriorly (including short as well as 
long spines) ; of second leg with about fourteen an tero- ventral spines and 
ten postero-ventrally. 
Metatarsus of first leg inferiorly with many (more than twenty) spines 
on the anterior side, and still more on the posterior side ; of second leg 
similar, but fewer posteriorly. 
Tarsi of legs one and two have strong spines antero-ventrally and 
postero-ventrally ; tarsi of legs three and four have scattered bristly hairs, 
situated on the anterior portion only of the ventral surface. On the third 
leg, patella, tibia, and metatarsus have each many spines situated dorsally 
on the anterior surface. On the upper part of the posterior surface the 
patella has only a couple of spines, apically situated, and an odd one nearer 
the middle of its length, situated rather more ventrally ; there are many 
