Supplement to Harvesting Ants and Trap-Door Spiders

by John Traherne Moggridge; Octavius Pickard-Cambridge

Genus Cteniza, Latr.

Cteniza Moggridgii, sp. n., [Plate XX], fig. A, p. 254.

Cteniza fodiens (Camb.)? ♀ in Harvesting Ants and Trap-door Spiders, J. T. Moggridge, 1873, p. 89, [Plate VII.], excluding synonyms there quoted.

Adult male length 5¹/₂ lines, length of cephalothorax 3 lines, breadth 2¹/₂.

The cephalothorax is of a short, broad-oval form, its length being only half a line greater than its breadth; it is flattened-convex above, and depressed near the margins, the caput (when looked at in profile) scarcely rising above the level of the thorax. At the junction of the caput and thoracic segments is a deep, circularly-curved indentation, or fovea, the curve of which is directed backwards; the extremities of this indentation are continued obliquely forwards on either side, forming the normal ones which indicate the junction of the caput and thorax. Rather more than one-third of the distance between the above curved indentation and the fore margin of the caput is a very perceptible and deep but narrow, slightly curved, transverse indentation which divides the caput into two distinct parts; the curve of this indentation is directed forwards. The normal thoracic indentations are well marked, but not very strong; the surface of the thorax, though shining, appeared under a lens to be covered with fine rugulosities. Its colour is yellow-brown; a large triangular patch on either side of the caput being tinged with orange, and the rest suffused with dark brown. The caput is of a dark reddish yellow-brown, showing (in spirit of wine) two longitudinal bars, or strong lines, of a clearer orange yellow-brown colour; its surface is glossy, though, under a lens, the sides of the fore part are very finely striated or rugulose. These lines begin behind the extremities of the hinder row of eyes, and gradually converge to a point at the thoracic junction; the ocular region and central longitudinal line of the fore-segment of the caput have some long and very prominent black bristles. When alive, the cephalothorax appears to have been suffused with a purplish hue, corresponding to that of the abdomen and other parts.

Plate XX.

The eyes form a rectangular figure, whose fore side is a little shorter than the hinder one, and whose transverse, or longest, diameter is as nearly as possible double the length of its shortest one; the eyes of the central or fore-central pair are small, and separated by a diameter's distance from each other. The hind laterals are the smallest of the eight, and each is almost contiguous to the hind-central nearest to it, this latter being of a sub-triangular form, and separated from the fore-central on its side by an interval equal to that which divides the two fore-centrals, but less than that which separates each fore-central from the fore-lateral on its side. Looked at as in two transverse rows of four each, those of the foremost row are darkish coloured, while those of the hinder row are pearly white. Omitting the eyes of the hind-central pair, the remaining three on either side form as nearly as possible an equilateral triangle.

The legs are long, moderately strong, their relative length being 4, 1, 2, 3. They are of a dark brown colour, generally paler on the under sides, furnished with hairs, fine bristles, and spines; the latter are numerous and strong beneath the metatarsi and tibiæ of the first and second pairs; on those of the third pair they are less strong and more uniformly disposed; on those of the fourth pair they are fewest and least conspicuous. The genual joints of the third pair have some strongish spines on the outer side; the right leg has eight, the left nine. The toothing of the superior tarsal claws does not appear to be uniform on the different legs of the same example; on those of the fourth pair there were five teeth; on those of the first pair eight or nine, with two others, quite rudimentary, towards the point of the claw; and even on one of the fourth pair of legs one of the claws had six, the other five teeth. The tarsal claws of the second pair are toothed throughout nearly their whole length with from eight to ten teeth; on one of the third pair the teeth were but five or six, while on the other there were on one claw but three ordinary teeth and a much stronger one a little way off in front of them, on the second claw only a single strong tooth about the middle, and a smaller one close to its base.