The Neotropical Orbweavers of the Genus Larinia (Araneae: Araneidae)

This paper is one in a series of publications on Neotropical orb- weavers (Levi 1968, 1971, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1989a, 1989b, in press), made to facilitate identification of common American spiders.It is hoped that this information will also contribute to our knowledge of the phylogeny and relationships of orb-weaving spiders.Larinia consists of 30 to 40 species, the genus having world-wide distribution.In the 1970s, Grasshoff (1970a, b, c, 1971) revised the African and Indoaustralian species of Larinia, placing them into nine genera.Genera were distinguished by details of palpal struc- ture, especially of the radix, (a projection of the tegulum, illustrated here in Fig. 41).Grasshoff (197 l) placed the American species Lari- nia directa in the genus Drexelia, this genus being distinguished by the internal structure of the epigynum: ducts that are wide on the Psyche [Vol.97Levi (1975) revised and illustrated the three North American spe- cies of Larinia: L. directa (Hentz), L. borealis Banks and L. famulatoria (Keyserling).All three are found in Mexico; L. directa is also found throughout the Neotropics.This paper includes the nine spe- cies found in the West Indies and south of Mexico.Materials and Methods.Methods are similar to those described in previous papers.Levi (1977) includes a description of the working method, which will also be discussed in a forthcoming revision of the genus Wixia.Eye sizes were described using the diameter of the anterior median eyes as a standard.For the anterior eye row, distance between eyes was measured in number of anterior median eye diameters; for the posterior eye row, in number of posterior median eye diameters.We thank the curators of the following collections for the loan of specimens