90 
THOMISHM5. 
Flowers growing in fields and gardens are the favorite resorts of Thomisus citreus, which 
occurs in various parts of England and Wales. The great dissimilarity in size and colour 
between the sexes has occasioned them to be described as different species. 
Thomisus abbreviatus. PL IV, fig. 54. 
Thomisus abbreviatus, Walck., Hist. Nat. des Insect. Apt., tom. i, p. 516. 
— diadema, Hahn, Die Arachn., Band i, p. 49, tab. 13, fig. 37. 
_ — Koch, Uebers. des Arachn. Syst., erstes Heft, p. 24. 
_ — Koch, Die Arachn., Band iv, p. 51, tab. 123, figs. 281, 282. 
Length of the female, fths of an inch; length of the cephalo-thorax, Jth, breadth, | B ths ; 
breadth of the abdomen, 1th; length of an anterior leg, ^ths; length of a leg of the third 
pair, 1th. 
The cephalo-thorax is convex, somewhat glossy, rounded in front and on the sides, 
abruptly sloped at the base, and has a prominent, conical tubercle on each side, in the region 
of the eyes, and a small process projecting from the middle of the frontal margin; it is of 
a brown colour, tinged with yellow towards the sides, and has a broad hand extending from 
its anterior extremity along the middle, more than two thirds of its length, and lateral 
margins of a pale-yellow, or yellowish-white hue. The eyes are disposed on the anteiior 
part of the cephalo-thorax in two transverse, curved rows, forming a crescent whose con¬ 
vexity is directed forwards; the eyes of the anterior row are rather larger than those of the 
posterior row, and the lateral eyes of both rows are seated on the conical tubercles, below 
their apex. The falces are short, strong, cuneiform, and vertical; the maxillae are convex at 
the base, enlarged at the extremity, which is truncated on the outer side, and inclined 
towards the lip, which has an oblong-oval figure; and the sternum is heart-shaped. These 
parts have a pale-yellow or yellowish-white hue; the lip is the darkest, and the falces have a 
brown spot at their base, in front. The legs are very unequal in length, the first and second 
pairs being much longer and more robust than the third and fourth pairs ; they are provided 
with short hairs and spines, two parallel rows of the latter occurring on the inferior surface 
of the metatarsi and the extremity of the tibiae of the first and second pairs, and are of a 
yellow colour, tinged with brown on the upper surface of the femur, genual joint, and tibia; 
the first pair is slightly longer than the second, the third pair is the shortest, and each tarsus 
is terminated by two curved, pectinated claws. The palpi, which are short, resemble the 
legs in colour, and have a curved, pectinated claw at their extremity. The abdomen is 
large, broad, abruptly curved downwards in the posterior region, and has a conical pro¬ 
tuberance on the upper part of each side, near the middle of its length; it is thinly clothed 
with short hairs, and of a yellow colour, the under part, which is the palest, having a row of 
minute, indented spots extending along each side of the medial line, and in the anterior 
region of the upper part there are five indented spots, disposed m the form of an acute angle, 
whose vertex is directed forwards; the sexual organs are small, and of a red-brown hue, with 
a longitudinal, brownish-yellow septum in the middle. 
