THOMISUS. 
73 
The cephalo-thorax is large, convex, slightly compressed before, rounded on the sides, 
broadly truncated in front, and provided with a few strong, black hairs, particularly on its 
anterior part; it is of a brownish-black colour, minutely mottled with yellowish-white ; a 
yellowish-white band, whose anterior part is the broadest, and is tinged with brown, extends 
along the middle, and the margins have a pale, yellowish-white hue. The eyes are disposed 
on the anterior part of the cephalo-thorax in two transverse, curved rows, forming a crescent 
whose convex side is before; the lateral eyes, which are seated on a protuberance whose 
superior part is whitish, are larger than the intermediate ones, those of the anterior row being 
the largest of the eight. The falces are short, cuneiform, and vertical; their colour is 
yellowish-white, the base and extremity having a brown hue. The maxillae are pointed at 
the extremity, and strongly inclined towards the lip, which is triangular. These parts are of 
a yellowish-brown colour, the base of the latter and a spot on the inner side of the base of the 
former having a brown hue. The sternum is heart-shaped, and of a yellowish-brown colour, 
freckled with brown. The abdomen is rather larger at the posterior than at the anterior 
extremity, sparingly clothed with short hairs, convex above, and projects over the base of the 
cephalo-thorax ; it is of a yellowish-brown colour, with a longitudinal, dark-brown, dentated 
band on each side of the medial line; a short, transverse, black streak occurs on each dentated 
band, about one third of its length from the anterior extremity, which is followed by a series 
of black spots diminishing in size as they approach the spinners; from the exterior angles of 
the dentated bands oblique, black lines pass to the sides, which are black anteriorly and dark- 
brown posteriorly, and an obscure, dark line extends from each brown branchial operculum to 
the spinners, where they meet. 
The male bears a near resemblance to the female in colour, but it is more strongly 
marked, and the under part of its abdomen has a darker hue. Its palpi are short; the humeral 
and cubital joints are of a yellowish-white colour, the former having a brown-black hue on 
the upper part, except at the extremity, and the latter being tinged with pale-brown ; the 
radial and digital joints are of a yellowish-brown colour, marked with darker brown ; the 
cubital and radial joints are short, and the latter projects from its extremity, on the outer side, 
two strong apophyses, the anterior one being somewhat pointed, and the posterior one 
depressed and rounded at its extremity; the digital joint is oval, with a lobe near the 
middle of its outer margin; it is convex and hairy externally, concave within, comprising the 
palpal organs, which are highly developed, not very complex in structure, with a prominent, 
pointed, curved process projecting beyond the lobe on the outer side of the joint, and are of 
a very dark-brown colour. 
Four immature females and an adult male of this species were taken near Blandford in 
Dorsetshire, by the Rev. O. P. Cambridge, in 1856. 
M. Walckenaer has placed this spider among the synonyma of Thomisus cristatus, from 
which it differs in size and in the design formed by the distribution of its colours; and on 
referring to M. Koch’s £ Uebers. des Arachn. Syst.,’ erstes Heft, p. 25, it will be seen that 
Thomisus sahulosus had been confounded with Thomisus lanio (Xysticus lanio, Kock), by that 
arachnologist, an error which he afterwards corrected in treating on the species in the twelfth 
volume of £ Die Arachniden,’ p. 66. 
