78 
THOMISIDiE. 
Thomisus luctuosus. PI. IV, fig. 45. 
Thomisus luctuosus, Blackw., Loud, and Edinb. Phil. Mag., third series, vol. viii, p. 489. 
— — Blackw., Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist., second series, vol. vii, 
p. 450. 
Length of the female, ^tlis of an inch ; length of the cephalo-thorax, 1th, breadth, ±th; 
breadth of the abdomen, ^ths; length of a leg of the second pair, grd; length of a leg of 
the third pair, |th. 
The legs are of a dark-brown colour, streaked and spotted with brown of a deeper 
shade, and have a yellowish-white hue at the joints; the first and second pairs, which are 
much longer and more robust than the third and fourth pairs, are nearly equal in length, the 
second pair being slightly the longer, and the fourth pair surpasses the third in longitudinal 
extent; each tarsus has two curved, deeply pectinated claws at its extremity. The cephalo- 
thorax is large, slightly compressed before, rounded on the sides, broadly truncated in front, 
and depressed in the anterior and posterior regions; it is of a brown colour, veined with 
lines of a deeper shade, and has a fine, yellowish-white line on the lateral margins; a short, 
yellowish-white band, bifid before, occupies the medial line near its base, on each side of 
which there is a spot of the same hue, situated on an irregular black patch; and a faint, 
brownish-white spot occurs on the inner side of the tubercles on which the anterior eyes of 
the lateral pairs are seated. The falces are short, strong, cuneiform, and vertical; the sternum 
is oblong heart-shaped ; the maxillae are convex at the base; and the lip is triangular. 
These parts are of a dark-brown colour, the first two being mottled with lighter brown, and 
the extremities of the last two being much paler than their bases. The palpi have a dark- 
brown hue, and are terminated by a curved, pectinated claw. The eyes form a crescent on 
the anterior part of the cephalo-thorax ; the lateral eyes, which are seated on tubercles, are 
larger than the rest, those of the anterior row being the largest of the eight. The abdomen 
is depressed, sparingly supplied with hairs, slightly corrugated on the sides, much broader at 
the posterior than at the anterior extremity, and projects over the base of the cephalo-thorax; 
its colour is yellowish-gray, mottled with black and dull-white; an obscure, light-coloured 
band, which subtends a few whitish streaks from each side towards the middle, encircles the 
upper part, and there are several short, curved, transverse, whitish lines above the spinners ; 
the sexual organs and the branchial opercula have a reddish-brown hue. The abdomen of 
the female, after she has deposited her eggs, becomes much more corrugated and darker 
coloured. 
The male is smaller, darker, and more distinctly marked than the female. The femora 
and tibiae of the first and second pairs of legs are of a very dark-brown colour, tinged with 
red, and those of the third and fourth pairs have a reddish-brown tint, the anterior extremity 
of the femora being the darkest; the metatarsi and tarsi of all the legs are of a pale, 
reddish-brown hue. The palpi are of a reddish-brown colour, the humeral joint being much 
the darkest, and the digital joint the palest; the cubital and radial joints are short; the 
