THE GENUS ISCHNOTHYREUS 
(ARANEAE, OONOPIDAE) IN 
CENTRAL AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES* 
By Arthur M. Chickering 
Museum of Comparative Zoology 
The genus hchnothyreus Simon was based upon a female from 
St. Vincent, B. W. I. in 1891. In 1893 Simon stated that he had 
the species described from St. Vincent also from parts of Africa, 
Ceylon, Sumatra, Java and the Philippines. His identification of 
the male of the same species from West Africa was clearly an error 
as will be made clear later in this paper. The genus is now known 
to be widely distributed in the regions named above as well as in the 
Hawaiian Islands, Central America, Florida and the West Indies. 
Careful collecting in South America willl probably show that the 
genus is also widely distributed throughout much of that continent. 
Petrunkevitch (1929) reported the female of I. peltifer (Simon) 
from Puerto Rico. Miss Bryant (1940) reported the female from 
Cuba. In 1942 she also described the male of Dysderina antiliana 
from St. Croix, U. S. V. I. and in 1948 reported the female of this 
species from Haiti. Both of these are now clearly seen to be mem- 
bers of the species I. peltifer (Simon). In 1951 I reported the col- 
lection of a single female of I. peltifer (Simon) in the Canal Zone 
Forest Preserve in July, 1939. Since that date a large collection of 
the genus has accumulated from Central America and the West 
Indies where I have done extensive collecting several times during 
the past seventeen years. 
The holotypes of new species described in this paper together with 
my entire collection of the genus hchnothyreus will be deposited in 
the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University. 
Grants GB-1801 and GB-5013 from the National Science Founda- 
tion have greatly aided me in extensive field work during the past 
four years and in my continued studies in the Museum of Compara- 
tive Zoology. In this brief paper I will simply state that I am 
repeating my grateful acknowledgements of aid and encouragement 
from the staff of the Museum of Comparative Zoology as frequently 
stated in numerous publications during the past many years. These 
acknowledgements should also be extended to Dr. W. J. Gertsch, 
*Manuscript received by the editor October 16, 1867 
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