Page:Harvesting ants and trap-door spiders. Notes and observations on their habits and dwellings (IA harvestingantstr00mogg).pdf/152

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pair of legs in the female are of even a more marked character in the male, and hence they may be considered a good and tangible specific difference from other nearly allied species; the tibiæ of the first pair are considerably enlarged on the under side at the fore extremity, where each is armed with a single, longish, strong, slightly curved, pointed black spine directed forwards (fig. a, 3). The Abdomen is small and of an oval form; its colours and markings resemble those of the female, but on the hinder half of the upper side two or three indistinctly traced pale angular bars or chevrons are formed by the distribution of the black-brown colours and markings; the under side of the abdomen is of a uniform pale whitish yellow, except the spiracular plates, which are yellow-brown. The Palpi are moderately long and strong; the radial joint is longer than the cubital, and is of a tumid and somewhat oval form, suffused over most of its surface with dark brown, the rest of the palpus being of a yellowish-brown colour; the digital joint is small and somewhat oblong-oval, curved downwards, and very slightly concave on its inside; the palpal organs consist of a nearly globular, basal, corneous bulb prolonged into a strongish, curved, but not very long, pear-stem form, the stem being distinctly cleft or bifid at its extreme point (vide figs. a 1, and a 2), one portion of the bifid part is larger than the other, though both are equal in length, and the stem of the palpal bulb is directed transversely outwards, almost at right angles with the digital joint.

Until the discovery of the male spider now described, and which is, without doubt, the male sex of the female described immediately before, this latter was thought to be the female of Nemesia Manderstjernæ (Ausserer), and it had indeed been so determined by Professor Ausserer himself. But the form of the palpal organs differs so decidedly from those of N. Manderstjernæ (Ausserer, Beiträge. . . . der Territelariæ, Verhandl. Z. B. Gesllsch: Wien, 1871, Bd. xxi. p. 170), that all doubts as to the present being a distinct (and as it is believed to be) a hitherto undescribed species, are removed. From M. Ausserer's description, the pear shaped stem of the palpal bulb in N. Manderstjernæ is comparatively slender, ending in a fine and uncleft point, whereas, in N. Eleanora, the stem is strong and its extremity cleft: other differences are also observable in the two spiders, but this one is well marked and the most tangible.

The specific name, Eleanora, now conferred upon the species, is taken from the Christian name of the Hon. Mrs. Boyle, reference