New South African Arachnida

Abstract

The miscellaneous assembly of new Arachnids described in this paper are all in the Albany Museum, except when otherwise stated. Perhaps the most noteworthy are the small marine spiders taken by the Rev. N. Abraham at Muizenberg, near Cape Town (Muizenbergia abrahami and Erigonopsis littoralis), a discovery of some interest seeing that previously only one marine genus, viz., Desis, had been known from South Africa. Whether their occurrence on our coast has any special zoo-geographical importance it is impossible to decide at present, as little or nothing is known of the Arachnid fauna of other shores; in any case it seems very probable that quite a new field awaits exploration on the coasts of the southern hemisphere, in worm-tubes and similar habitats between tide-marks. Some of the descriptions are based on material which has been kindly lent to me by the authorities of the British Museum, London, and of the Natal Museum, Pietermaritzburg; for this courtesy I am especially indebted to Mr. A. S. Hirst, the Arachnologist of the British Museum, and to Dr. E. Warren, the Director of the Natal Museum.