. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College. Zoology. COLPHEPEIRA, MiCRATHENA AND GaSTERACANTHA NoRTH OF MeXICO • Levi 437. Gasteracantha cancriformis Map 3. North American distribution of Gasteracantha cancriformis (Linnaeus). records. None were found in recent collec- tions and the species probably does not occur in the Southwest. (There is a speci- men in the N. Banks collection from "; which probably also originated with Marx.) Although large collections were available from Jamaica, only one species, G. cancri- formis, is found and the Linnaeus record m
. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College. Zoology. COLPHEPEIRA, MiCRATHENA AND GaSTERACANTHA NoRTH OF MeXICO • Levi 437. Gasteracantha cancriformis Map 3. North American distribution of Gasteracantha cancriformis (Linnaeus). records. None were found in recent collec- tions and the species probably does not occur in the Southwest. (There is a speci- men in the N. Banks collection from "; which probably also originated with Marx.) Although large collections were available from Jamaica, only one species, G. cancri- formis, is found and the Linnaeus record may also be a locality error. Gasteracantha tetracantha occurs in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the Bahamas to the north, exactly those areas where G. cancri- formis is absent. Many specimens appear to be intergrades having six spines and only a few have completely lost the anterior pair. The intergrades come from the north and the Bahamas, not from the west. I hope to obtain more specimens from the region to determine whether there are one or two species in the West Indies. Numerous names have been given to populations of G. cancriformis but as far as I know there are never two different pop- ulations overlapping except perhaps in the West Indies. The niche of the numerous African Gasteracantha species seems occu- pied by species of Micrathena in the Amer- icas. Gasteracantha cancriformis (Linnaeus) Plate 2; Figures 69-84; Map 3 Araiiea cancriformis Linnaeus, 1767, Systema Naturae, 12 ed., p. 1037. Specimens described from Jamaica, probably lost. A. hexacantha Fabricius, 1787, Mantissa Insec- torum, 1: 344. Name given with one line of description, but no locality. Gasteracantha velitaris C. L. Koch, 1838, Die Arachniden, 4: 33, pi. 269, $. Female from Brazil. Plcctana elipsoides Walckenaer, 1841, Histoire Natiirelle des Insectes, Apteres, 2: 155. Name given to fig. 118, p. 13 of Abbot, Drawings of the Insects of Georgia in America, photocopy examined. Plcctana quinques
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