Hong Kong Spiders
99
The young Argiopes, immature females, make a small web which has at first no proper stabilimentum but only a lacework of stronger threads at the centre,
The mature female of anasuja always rested at the centre of the web head downwards. When alarmed she used to raise her body out- wards from the web and then suddenly pop through the opening right at the centre of the web within the X of the ribbons to the other side.
The male Argiope is much smaller than his mate (4 mm.) and very inconspicuous, being only a plain purple brown in colour. He is found usually on the edge of the big web or on a tiny web of his own near by.
Argiope aemula was originally described by Walckenaer from the Celebes. It has been obtained since from Burma, Ceylon, different parts of India, Nicobar Isles and Malaysia. The genus is wide spread in the Tropics and sub-Tropics with the headquarters in Malaya and Oceania from which some 40 species have been identified. One species is European and another Canadian. Several species have a very wide distribution such as the type A. lobata Pallas which extends from a great part of Africa through
Central Asia to India.
The genus is easily recognised by the white X on the web and again by the richness of the livery.
Within Hong Kong A. aemula has been taken at the Peak, Tai O and Aberdeen.
Genus ARANEUS, Clerck 1757.
7. Araneus de Haanii Dol.
First described by Doleschall in "Verh. Nat. Vereen. Neder. Ind. V. p. 33 (1859). Thorell in 'Ragni Birmani' p. 178 (1887) gives the synonymy under Epeira. Pocock in his 'Arachnida' p. 225 gives a brief description and a figure.
The species de haanii is a large type of Araneus, the mature female reaching a length of one inch (25 mm.)
In colour the cephalothorax is reddish and covered with white hairs; legs and palps red; abdomen yellow brown generally with darker mottled areas below, dark brown in front of shoulder points and again below the terminal point. There is a large conical tubercle over each pair of lateral eyes. Abdomen is triangular in outline with two distinct sharp shoulder points in front and a median terminal one. There is a very strong scape to the vulva. Workman figures the species in his "Malaysian Spiders." From the specimens I have examined, the colour markings seem to be most variable for in some cases there is a dark brownish mark on the abdomen dorsally arching across from the two shoulder points then extending down- wards to the point at the tip; the front and sides round this patch being yellowish.
The web is said by Workman to be vertical and from 20′′-24′′ across with a line reaching to the spider's resting place under a leaf.
July 1935-
27
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