Chapter V: Front Matter (5)

_Cephalothorax_ oval, truncate at each end; moderately convex above, the profile line forming a pretty even, sloping, curved line, but flattish in the middle near the thoracic fovea, which is of a strongly curved form; the other normal indentations are not strong, though fairly defined; the colour of the cephalothorax is yellow-brown, palish and clothed with yellowish-grey adpressed hairs on the margins, and inclining to orange on the caput. The clypeus is somewhat steep, about equal to half the height of the facial space, and the sides of the caput are dark blackish-brown, leaving a longitudinal, central reddish orange-brown band tapering to the thoracic fovea.

The upper and hinder part of the thorax is strongly suffused with brown, leaving broad but irregular pale lateral margins; there is a group of strong bristles directed forwards from the margin of the clypeus, and two or three more in the median line behind the ocular area.

The _eyes_ are on a strongish oblong dark brown transverse tubercular eminence; the fore-laterals are rather smaller than the hind-laterals, and the fore-centrals are larger than the hind-centrals, the latter being much the smallest of the eight; the interval between those of each lateral pair is about equal to, or slightly larger than, the diameter of one of the fore-central eyes; the intervals between the four eyes of the front row are equal, each interval being equal to the diameter of one of the fore-centrals; and each hind-central eye is separated from the fore-central nearest to it by as nearly as possible a similar distance, and from the hind-lateral on its side by a very small but distinct interval.

The _legs_ are rather long, strong, of a brownish-yellow colour, suffused with blackish-brown on the upper sides of the femora, and furnished with hairs, bristles, and spines. Those of the hinder (fourth) pair were wanting, the relative lengths of the others being 1, 2, 3; 2 and 3 being very nearly equal. The spines are not numerous, being disposed mostly on the tibiæ and metatarsi of the third pair; some, however, had been evidently broken off; all the tarsi were without spines; each tarsus ends with three claws, the superior pair with several--6-8?--teeth on their under sides.

The tibial joint of each of the first pair is short, no longer than the genual joint, but it is strong and enlarged gradually beneath to its fore extremity, where it ends in a strong, sharp-pointed, tapering red-brown curved spine, directed downwards, forwards, and inwards. Each tarsus of the first and second pairs is pretty thickly fringed just below on each side along its whole length, with short strongish hairs of an even length.

On the outer side of the genual joint of the third pair (left leg) are three spines in a longitudinal row; the other leg of this pair was wanting.

The _palpi_ are moderately long, and similar in colour and general armature to the legs; the radial joint is strong, a little tapering forwards, and somewhat curved underneath towards its hinder part; its length is about double that of the digital joint, and from its fore extremity on the upper side, three strong, somewhat sessile, spines of equal length, and directed forwards issue, in a straight transverse line.

The palpal organs consist of a roundish corneous bulb drawn out into a longish, tapering, curved, sharp-pointed spine, the point being very fine, gradual, and directed outwards.

The _falces_ are strong, prominent, of a deep red-brown colour, furnished above with dull greyish-yellow hairs mixed with dark bristles, and disposed in longitudinal stripes; and near the upper extremity on the inner side are four strongish spines.

The _maxillæ_ are strong, divergent, cylindrical, with a small angular prominence at their inner extremity; they are furnished with hairs, but no denticulations, and there is a strong fringe of reddish hairs on their inner margins. The maxillæ are of the same colour as the palpi.

The _labium_ is short and broad; its breadth double its height and its apex rounded. Its junction with the _sternum_ appeared to be about at right angles. It is darker in colour than the maxillæ, but with a paler apex; its surface is furnished with bristly hairs, but there are no denticulations at its apex. _Sternum_ oval, truncate before, pointed behind, furnished with bristly hairs, and of the same colour as the legs.

The _abdomen_ is of an oblong-oval form, truncate before, and tolerably convex above; it is of a pale dull yellowish colour clothed with yellow-grey hairs, among which are a good many prominent dark bristly ones; the fore part of the upper side is irregularly marked with black-brown; following this towards the hinder part, and reaching half way or more to the spinners, is an indistinct longitudinal central line of the same colour, throwing off numerous short lateral lines at right angles; towards either side of the hinder two-thirds of the abdomen are several oblique black-brown lines extending more or less over the sides; one, about the middle, extends farther over the sides than the rest, and almost unites with a curved deep black-brown transverse line crossing the under side of the abdomen a little way in front of the spinners.

The under side of the abdomen is similar in colour to the upper side, and, besides the transverse dark line above mentioned, there is another touching the anterior margins of the posterior spiracular plates; the superior pair of spinners are short and strong; the inferior pair small, and in the ordinary position, but apparently not (proportionally) so small as in the females of some other species.

A single adult male was received for examination from M. Eugène Simon, by whom it was found at Digne (Basses Alpes, France). M. Simon conjectures that it may be the male of _Nemesia Moggridgii_ (p. 273), but some slight differences in the size and positions of the eyes, and in the pattern on the cephalothorax, and on the under, as well as the upper, side of the abdomen, lead me to believe that it is of a different, and hitherto undescribed species, though probably very closely allied to some others, especially to _Nemesia Manderstjernæ_ (_N. meridionalis_, Cambr., described, p. 283); in the present species however the hind-lateral eyes are much larger in proportion than in _N. Manderstjernæ_.

_Habitat._ Digne, Basses Alpes, France.

Nemesia dubia, sp. n., Plate XIX., fig. E, p. 229.

Syn. _Nemesia cæmentaria_, Simon, _Aranéides nouv. ou peu connus du Midi de l'Europe_, Mém. Liège, 1873 (separate copy), p. 24.

Adult male, length 5-1/2 lines to 6 lines.

M. Eugène Simon (l.c.) describes, as _N. cæmentaria_, Latr., both sexes of a spider found by himself in the Pyrenees and Spanish mountain regions.

Languedoc and Provence are also given as localities, but it is not clear that he has himself found it in these latter parts, certainly not the male.

Two examples of this sex, found in the Pyrenees, and received from M. Simon, are now before me; these correspond, so far, very exactly to the description he gives (l.c.); the female I have not seen.

If the position assumed (p. 271) on Latreille's own authority, that the true male of _N. cæmentaria_, Latr., (_N. carminans_, Latr.), has a bifid point to the prolongation of the palpal bulb, it is clear that the present species is distinct from that of Latreille.

M. Simon describes this palpal bulb as having its extreme point "simple et plus effilée" (_i.e._ more slender than in the preceding species he has described _N. meridionalis_). That the examples now before me, agreeing exactly with this description, are not the males of the species above described by myself as _N. cæmentaria_, Latr., from numerous females found at Montpellier, appears to me clear, not only because I assume that of the true _N. cæmentaria_, Latr., males will be found to have the point of the palpal bulb bifid, but because the position of the eyes is markedly different in M. Simon's Pyrenean males and the Montpellier females. In the latter the eyes of the front row are separated from each other by equal intervals, in the former the interval between those of the central pair is very perceptibly greater than that between each and the lateral of the same row nearest to it. The interval also between each of the fore-central eyes and the hind-central on its side is proportionally much less.

It appears therefore necessary to characterize _N. cæmentaria_ (Sim. l.c.) by some other name, for if eventually it should be found that Latreille has erred in _N. carminans_ (with the _bifid point_ to the palpal bulb) being the male of his _N. cæmentaria_, and that the Montpellier species has a male with a _simple point_ to this part, even then the present spider cannot retain its name (_cæmentaria_), being distinct from the females found at Montpellier.

It is possible, of course, that the present species may hereafter be found, perhaps abundantly, at Montpellier; in that case it will have to be decided which of the two is most likely to be the species described by Latreille. In that eventuality it seems to me that the spider, above described from Montpellier, would be more probably Latreille's species, for one of its specific characters is a tolerably distinct and bold series of, not more than, five dark angular bars along the middle of the upper side of the abdomen, agreeing exactly with Dugès' figures in the _Règne Animal_ of Cuvier, quoted above (p. 271); while in M. Simon's Pyrenean spider, the abdominal pattern of the female described by him, does not agree with this: "il est orné d'une fine ligne noire longitudinale, un peu ondulée, présentant de nombreuses ramifications, s'étendant sur les parties latérales" (l.c. p. 26). The males before me accord with this description, though (as M. Simon also remarks) the "série de fins accents bruns transverses" is "peu visibles et souvent effacés" (l.c., p. 25); in one example this pattern is fairly distinct, in the other it is scarcely recognisable.

The present is a larger spider than _N. incerta_ (the male found by M. Simon at Digne); it is also less distinctly marked both on the cephalothorax and abdomen. The position of the eyes is different, and so also is the palpal bulb; in that species the spine describes a simple curve with a strong outward direction; in the present it is slightly but perceptibly _sinuous_, and its general direction is _parallel to the radial joint of the palpus_; the spines also at the upper fore extremity of the radial joint are 5-6 in number instead of three. The outer side of the genual joint of each of the legs of the third pair has three spines; that on the left side, however, of one example, has four. The palpal bulb also appears to be proportionally smaller than that of _N. dubia_, or of _N. Manderstjernæ_, Auss. (_N. meridionalis_, Cambr.)

Another difference may here be noted between the present species and the Montpellier _cæmentaria_. M. Simon (_in lit._) separates his _N. cæmentaria_ from all others by the length of the patella and tibia (genual and tibial joints) of the fourth pair of legs, exceeding in length that of the cephalothorax and falces.

This character has not been found to exist in several females of the Montpellier species, minutely measured by Mr. Moggridge; in them the length of the cephalothorax and falces were found to exceed that of the genual and tibial joints of the fourth pair of legs, by from 1-1/2 to 2 mm.

In regard to the relative length of the legs of the present species this was 4, 1, 2, 3 in the one example examined, and 4, 1, 2-3 in the other, both being males.

It is a matter of regret that nothing, as yet, has been accurately observed in regard to the particular type or form of the nest of _N. dubia_.

_Habitat._ Pyrenees and Spanish mountain regions.

Nemesia Manderstjernæ, Plate XX., fig. B, C, p. 254.

Syn. _Nemesia Manderstjernæ_, Auss. ♂, _Beitr. zur Kenntn. der Arachn. Fam. der Territelariæ_, p. 54.

_Nemesia meridionalis_, Cambr. (female), _Harvesting Ants and Trap-door Spiders_, by J. T. Moggridge, p. 101. Plates IX. X. XI.

Adult male, length 6-1/4 to 7-1/2 lines.

Since the publication of the description of _N. meridionalis_, Cambr. (♀ l.c. _supra_), I have had an opportunity of examining an adult example of each sex of a _Nemesia_, described about the same time by M. Eugène Simon as _N. meridionalis_, Costa, in _Aranéides nouv. ou peu connus du Midi de l'Europe_, p. 21 (separate copy). The species described by M. Simon was found by himself abundantly in Corsica. He also gives Italy and Provence as localities, but the former of these two is, I conclude, given as being _Costa's_ locality for the spider described by this latter author in _Fauna d. Regn. Napl. Arachn._, p. 14; the other locality (Provence) would seem to have been doubtfully given. On careful examination of the Corsican examples (male and female), and on comparing them with the male and female of _N. meridionalis_, Cambr., as well as the description and figure given by Costa, I feel no doubt but that M. Simon is right in according to the Corsican species M. Costa's name--_meridionalis_. It agrees, I think, decidedly better, on the whole, with Costa's figure and description than the species to which (l.c.) I had allotted the specific name _meridionalis_ conferred by that author. Nor had I any hesitation in accepting the determination made by M. Simon, in _Bull. Ent. Soc. Fr._, 1873, sér. v. tom. 3, c.; that my _N. meridionalis_ ♀ is the female of _N. Manderstjernæ_, Auss., the more especially as since the publication of my description I have received from the same locality (Mentone) not only the male of the spider described by myself (l.c.), but also the type of M. Ausserer's description of _N. Manderstjernæ_ (found at Nice), and believe these to be identical in species. There is, indeed, a difference in the, apparent, relative positions and colour of the eyes of the two spiders, but no more than may be well accounted for by the condition of M. Ausserer's type (most kindly lent to me for examination by its owner, Dr. Ludwig Koch); this example is much shrunken, having the appearance of having been allowed to get dry and then to have been again immersed in spirit. This would (I have frequently found it so in other spiders) cause even the hard integument of the cephalothorax to contract, and so cause the eyes to shrink up together into a closer group, as well as to sink down into the cuticle, making some of them appear smaller than they really are. Alternate drying and wetting again in spirit would also account for the yellowish brown colour of the eyes, whereas in the male of the Mentone spider the eyes of the hinder row are pearly grey, and of the front row dark grey. Beyond these differences I can find no distinction between them.

The male of the present species is very nearly allied to both _N. incerta_ (p. 276) from the Pyrenees, and _N. dubia_ (p. 280) from Digne, of both of which, as remarked (l.c.), the male sex alone is known to me; it is, however, larger than either, more richly coloured, and more distinctly marked. In all three species the elongated portion of the palpal bulb has a simple point, but in the present spider it is not drawn out so finely and gradually: some portion of its extremity being, though very fine yet really, cylindrical, and not tapering off into a hair-like termination; the general direction of the palpal bulb is parallel with the radial joint, but the point which is equally curved is directed outwards and a little downwards; the radial joint has four spines at the fore extremity on the upper side (in one of the examples there were however seven on the radial joint of the right palpus), and the genual joint of each leg of the third pair, in both examples from Mentone as well as in M. Ausserer's example from Nice, has three spines on its outer side. This character was not remarked upon in the description of _N. meridionalis_ ♀ (Cambr. l.c.). It is not invariable in a long series of female examples; occasionally one is found with four spines on one of these genual joints, in others there is occasionally but one spine and sometimes (but rarely) none; perhaps in this case broken off? I am inclined to attach some importance as a specific character to the number, presence, or absence of these spines on the outer side of the genual joint of the third pair of legs; not that it is an invariable character, few, if any, specific characters are absolute and invariable, nor that it is of more importance than the armature of other portions of the different legs, but as being more easily observed and less liable to injury than the larger and more numerous spines on other parts. Equally useful in specific determination are the spines at the fore-extremity on the upper side of the radial joint of the palpus. This, however, applies only to the male, whereas the character derived from the spines on the genual joints of the third pair of legs applies to both sexes.

Another character by which the present species (♀) may be distinguished from _N. dubia_ (_N. cæmentaria_, Sim.) is that the former is rather narrower at the fore-extremity of the caput, which is also less elevated, being almost equally level with the thorax.

The description of the female given (l.c. _supra_) needs but little addition. It may be noticed, however, that the central longitudinal tapering orange band on the caput is faintly continued to the extreme hinder margin of the thorax, and the thoracic fovea is rather sharply curved. The intervals between the eyes is the same as in those of _N. Moggridgii_, though their absolute size in some examples appeared to be smaller. In both sexes there are several small, black, tooth-like, tubercular spines on the inner side of the base of each maxilla, but none at the apex of the labium.

The colour of the _cephalothorax_ in the male is bright-reddish orange-yellow; a large portion of the sides of the caput, and the ocular area also, is black-brown; the middle of the thorax is distinctly marked with black-brown lines radiating to the thoracic fovea.

Other, less deep, brown markings are mixed with these radiating lines; there are a few prominent bristles in front of the ocular area, a single longitudinal line of erect bristles along the middle of the orange band from the eyes to the thoracic fovea, and the whole cephalothorax is more or less clothed with greyish-yellow adpressed hairs.

The _falces_ are of a deep blackish red-brown colour, longitudinally striped with yellow-greyish hairs mixed with dark bristles; and there are some strong spines at the fore extremity on the inner side.

The _abdomen_ is oval, tolerably convex above, of a dull, pale, straw colour, suffused with brown at its fore extremity, whence an indistinct central longitudinal band tapers to a point rather more than half way to the spinners; on either side of this band are some oblique, lateral, brown lines, which become broken chevrons, between the termination of the central band and the spinners. The sides are obscurely and irregularly marked with brown, and the under side is of a uniform dull straw-yellow; the abdomen is clothed thickly with mixed yellow-grey and dark hairs; the upper side is furnished also with strong, nearly erect bristly black ones.

Each _tarsus_ terminates with three claws; those of the superior pair are pectinated beneath, but the number of teeth appears to vary in the different legs, from six to eight. The tibial joint of the first pair is of the same character as that in the males of other species: it has a strong black curved spine directed inwards from the fore extremity of the under side, and a short bluntish-conical, but very distinct prominence at the same extremity on the inner side, not far from the base of the curved spine, Plate XX., fig. B 4 and C; the colour of the legs is yellow, tinged with orange, the upper sides of the femora being nearly black; the palpi are similar in colour, the upper side of the humeral joints being suffused with a blackish hue.

The relative length of the legs is not constant; in one example it was 4, 3, 1, 2, in the other 4, 1, 2, 3, 2 and 3 being very nearly equal. Similar variations are also found in the legs of the female.

In regard to the nest of this species, researches made subsequently to the publication of _Harvesting Ants and Trap-door Spiders_ have proved it to be of rather a different form from that there represented; thus in the main tube, just before the inner door is reached, there is a descending branch running off from the main tube at the same angle as the ascending branch, but in an opposite direction; in the older and larger nests the descending branch becomes choked with débris; it is more distinct in the nests of the younger spiders, and is always more or less distinctly traceable.

_N.B._--In the above details there have been only one or two special distinctions observed between the two male examples examined. It should however be noted that in one (the one captured behind a stone wall) the ocular area was slightly narrower in proportion to its length, and the interval between the eyes of each lateral pair rather less.

_Habitat._ San Remo, Bordighera, Mentone, Cannes, and Hyères.

Nemesia Meridionalis, Plate XVII., fig. B, p. 215.

Syn. _Nemesia meridionalis_, Costa, _Fauna d. Regn. Napl. Arachn._, p. 14, Pl. I., figs. 2, 3.

---- ---- Simon, _Aranéides nouv. ou peu connus du Midi de l' Europe_, Mém. Liège, 1873 (separate copy), p. 21.

Adult male, length 6-3/4 lines (14 mm.), female adult, length 10-1/2 lines (22 mm.).

The examination of an adult example of each sex of this spider received from M. Simon, by whom they were found in Corsica, leads me to conclude that we have here the true _N. meridionalis_, Costa, as certainly at least as it is possible at present to identify the species by the insufficient description and figures given by this author.

The _eyes_ appear to be less closely massed together than in _N. Manderstjernæ_, but in other respects no particularly tangible difference is to be noted; the interval however between the eyes of each lateral pair is perhaps rather greater. Between the male and the female of the present species there is a decided difference in the relative position of the eyes. In the female the fore-centrals are nearer together than each is to the fore-lateral on its side, while in the male, the fore-centrals are wider apart than each is from its fore-lateral. I have also noted a similar difference in regard to _N. Manderstjernæ_. The fore-centrals are also smaller in the female than in the male.

The two species, although bearing such great general similarity to each other, may be at once distinguished by several very tangible differences. First in regard to the _male_. The _cephalothorax_ of _N. meridionalis_ has the whole caput of an almost uniform dark brown colour, two slender yellow lines beginning, one a little way behind each lateral pair of eyes, and converging rather quickly towards each other, run on nearly parallel, but in close proximity together to the thoracic fovea. The centre of the thorax is also dark brown, the brown portion formed by radiating confluent patches, rather than by distinct lines as in _Manderstjernæ_. The curve of the thoracic fovea is sharp, in fact more in the form of a straight line with the ends bent down.

The _cephalothorax_ is of nearly one uniform level and convexity above; the caput being a little more rounded than the thorax; the eye eminence seemed to be rather higher than in _N. Manderstjernæ_, and the _clypeus_, which is steepish, is impressed in the middle and exceeds in height half that of the facial space; on the lower margin of the _clypeus_ is a transverse row of several strong prominent bristles. There were no bristles behind the eyes, and no appearance of any having been broken off there (the female, however, has a single longitudinal row on the caput). The lateral and hinder margins of the cephalothorax, however, are, in the male (but not in the female) clothed with black bristles and bristly hairs.

The _palpi_ are longer than in _Manderstjernæ_. The radial joints have, at the upper fore extremity of each, five spines, _three_ in front in a transverse line, and _two_ immediately behind them. The palpal bulb is more globular, and the spiny production, which is not very long, springs from it more suddenly, and is _strongly sinuous_, its sharp tapering point directed outwards. The strong sinuosity of this part distinguishes it at once both from _N. Manderstjernæ_ and all other known European males with a simple point to the palpal organs.

The _legs_ are longish and strong; their relative length 4-1, 3, 2 (male); 4-1, 2, 3 (female); they are furnished with hairs, bristles, and spines. These do not appear to call for special notice, except that each genual joint of those of the third pair has two spines on its outer side in both sexes.

The superior tarsal claws are denticulated, but the denticulations differ in number and strength, not only in the two sexes and in the different legs, but in some instances in the two superior claws of the same leg. The denticulations seemed to be more numerous in the female than in the male.

The _abdomen_ is elongate oval, and of a straw yellow colour. In the _male_ the fore part of the upper side is irregularly black brown, followed by an irregular somewhat broken longitudinal central bar, and some broken oblique lines and portions of chevrons. In the _female_ the fore part is less densely blackish, the central longitudinal line is obscure, but the oblique lateral lines are more distinct and less broken, but none are quite united so as to form chevrons, though the two or three nearest to the spinners almost do so.

The upper side is furnished with numerous strong nearly erect black bristles.

The _labium_ has a row, of bristles only, at its apex.

The markings of the cephalothorax in the female are very nearly like those of that sex in _N. Manderstjernæ_; the tapering orange yellow band, however, behind the eyes appears to be rather bolder, as in that species this band also is faintly traceable quite to the hinder thoracic margin. The inner corner of the base of the maxillæ, in both sexes, has several minute tooth-like black spines.

The form of the cephalothorax in the female differs from that of the male; in the latter sex (male) it is narrower before and rather rounded behind; in the former sex (female) it is broadest before and more distinctly hollow-truncate behind; the caput is also rounder and more elevated. In the female the tarsi and metatarsi of the two first pairs of legs have close set brush-like hairs beneath; these are wanting in the two hinder pairs, and also almost entirely wanting on the two first pairs in the male.

Various other characters, both peculiar and differential, are noted in regard to this species by M. Simon (l.c.). It is to be regretted that this painstaking observer did not note more exactly the form and type of its nest; from his description of it, however, it appears to be branched, but whether the door is of the wafer or cork type, or whether it has an inner door or not, is not mentioned.

_Habitat._ Corsica.

Nemesia Congener, sp. n., Plate XVIII., fig. A, p. 225.

Adult female, length 9 lines (19 mm.).

In general appearance, colours, and markings this spider bears great resemblance to _N. cæmentaria_. The eyes, however, appeared to be smaller, and the hind-centrals also smaller in proportion to the rest. The pale margins of the cephalothorax are in the present species generally confined to some rather indistinct pale patches.

The central orange band from the eyes to the thoracic fovea is, especially in immature examples, often only a simple tapering line; in others it is larger, and often composed of three converging narrow orange bands, which form, in some examples, a broad central tapering band, marked with two longitudinal dark lines. The thoracic fovea is curved, but not sharply.

The _abdomen_ is broadish oval, of a dull clay colour, marked with dark brown lines, and markings on the sides and upper side. In some examples these form a longitudinal central series of curved or slightly angular lines; in others but little trace of regular chevrons can be seen.

In the present spider there is also a longitudinal pale yellowish patch on the inner upper margin of the falces near their base; they are furnished with hairs in longitudinal bands, and spines, like others of the genus.

The _legs_ are moderately long, strong, and furnished with hairs and bristles, and, sparingly, with spines. The genual joints of the third pair have some spines on the outer side, varying from one to three in different examples. The tarsi and metatarsi of the first and second pairs, as well as the radial and digital joints of the palpi, have strong lateral brush-like fringes of close-set sooty black hairs. The superior pair of tarsal claws are denticulated, but not uniformly either in strength, number, or position.

No doubt this will prove a very troublesome spider to distinguish with certainty from _N. cæmentaria_, but the almost constant presence of a spine or spines on the outer face of the genual joint of the third pair of legs seems to be a good distinguishing character; in no one example out of nine carefully examined could I detect their absence altogether, while a single spine even on _N. cæmentaria_ is rare.

In the present species five examples had three spines on each of these joints; two had two spines on each; one had a single spine on each; another had one on one side, two on the other.

The nest, however, is very characteristic and peculiar. It is of the wafer-lid type, and so cannot, from even the outside, be mistaken for that of _N. cæmentaria_, which is of the cork-lid type; it is, moreover, branched below, while that of _N. cæmentaria_ is a single unbranched tube. It has also an inside door, or valve, of very remarkable construction, having two perfect cork-like faces, securely shutting off either the branch, or the main tube just above the branch, at pleasure. By this latter character it is distinguished also from the tube of _N. Manderstjernæ_, as well as by the absence of a second short branch or cavity, lately discovered in the nest of this last spider. Examples of this spider were found, not unfrequently, but invariably in such nests as that above described, at Hyères.

The female sex only has yet been met with.

_Habitat._ Hyères.

Nemesia Suffusa, sp. n., Plate XVII., fig. A, p. 215.

Immature female, length 7-1/2 lines (15-1/2 mm.).

Although no example was quite adult, this species may readily be distinguished from all others yet known to me, by its more elongated form, particularly the cylindrico-ovate form of the abdomen.

The _cephalothorax_ is oval, broadest towards its posterior extremity, where it is rounded, the fore-margin being truncated; the caput is well rounded and convex, and the thorax perhaps more so than in other species, so that when looked at in profile there is a considerable dip or hollow at the thoracic fovea; this fovea forms a slight curve. Except that the lateral margins are rather broadly pale towards the hinder part (though the pale portion is ill-defined), the whole of the cephalothorax is of a uniform dull yellowish-brown colour; the extreme lateral margin is marked by a black line, and in one or two examples there was an indistinct yellowish central longitudinal line from the eyes to the thoracic junction, having a single row of prominent bristles upon it. The whole surface of the cephalothorax is fairly clothed with dusky yellowish-grey adpressed hairs: the ordinary grooves and indentations are well marked.

The _eyes_ are on the usual eye eminence, which is perhaps rather more elevated than ordinary, and its summit black; their position is ordinary. It may, however, be noticed that the fore-centrals are placed more forward than in most of the other known species; the fore-centrals are about _equally_ separated from each other, and from the fore-laterals nearest to each respectively; they are also separated from the hind-central nearest to each, by an interval not differing much from that between each other; the hind-centrals are distinctly oval, or rather somewhat semilunar in form, smallest of the eight (except in one example, when they were almost, if not quite, as large as the fore-centrals), and at their hindermost point very near, but not quite contiguous, to the hind-laterals. The eyes of each lateral pair (of which the hinder is very nearly equal in size to the fore one), are very near, but not quite contiguous, to each other; the interval between them is narrower than that between the corresponding eyes in almost any other yet described species.

The _legs_ are neither long nor very strong; their relative length is 4, 1, 2, 3, though between 2 and 3 there is in different examples the same variation observed in other species; sometimes they are equal, and sometimes one, and then the other, very slightly the longest: their colour is pale yellowish, and they are furnished with hairs, bristles, and spines, but the latter are not numerous, and appeared to be both longer and slenderer than usual; the genual joints of the third pair have spines, from one to three on the outer side, for the most part, three; the superior tarsal claws are pectinated (but not uniformly on all the legs) beneath their hinder portion.

The _falces_ are strong, and similar in colour to the cephalothorax, but they do not appear to call for any special remark.

The _maxillæ_ have a few minute tuberculiform black teeth at their base on the inner side, and, with the _labium_ (which has no hairs at its apex) and _sternum_, are similar in colour to the legs.

The _abdomen_ is of an elongated, or cylindrico-ovate form, of a dull drab-yellowish colour, with a central, longitudinal, irregular, rather chocolate-brown bar on its upper side, and 6 to 7 well-defined lateral oblique slightly curved lines of the same colour and touching the central line; between these lines are some other irregular, but similarly coloured, markings.

The sides are almost immaculate, and the underside quite so; the spinners are ordinary.

About 10 examples (all immature) were found at Montpellier in branched tubes closed at the entrance with a wafer-lid. The branch arises some way below the entrance and runs up to the surface at an acute angle with the main tube; there is no lower door, and thus this tube forms the type of a new form of nest, being branched, with a wafer-lid, but without a lower door.

This species cannot be confused with _N. cæmentaria_, which is found abundantly in the same locality; both the general form, colours, markings, and nest readily distinguish it from that species.

_Habitat._ Montpellier.

Nemesia Simoni, sp. n., Plate XVI., fig. A, p. 211.

Adult female, length rather more than 9-1/4 lines (20 mm.).

This spider is of a proportionally broader and stouter form than others of the genus _Nemesia_, and the cephalothorax (which is entirely glabrous and destitute of adpressed hairs) has the caput more rounded and elevated than in any other species of _Nemesia_ known to me, approaching _Cteniza_ in these respects.

The _cephalothorax_ is oval, truncate, and about equally broad at each end; the ordinary grooves and indentations are strong; besides the groove which indicates its union with the thorax, the caput has an indented or pinched-in appearance towards its hinder part on each side. Except that this was present in all the examples examined (ten) it might have been taken to be accidental.

The colour of the cephalothorax is dark brown tinged with yellow, darkest on the sides of the caput, which is divided longitudinally by a narrow, dull, orange-yellow line, and lightest on the margins towards the hinder part; the thoracic fovea is curved, but more deeply indented and the indentation is wider at each end than in other species, the ends being a little turned back: there is a single longitudinal row of long erect bristles along the central line of the caput, and a few more on the lower margin of the clypeus.

The _eyes_ form a narrower oblong area than usual, owing chiefly to their small size and to those of each lateral pair being almost contiguous to each other, separated only by an interval equal to that which divides each hind-lateral from the hind-central nearest to it. The hind-centrals are smallest of the eight, and vary in form, being round, semilunar, or roughly wedge-shaped, differing at times in the same example. The eye eminence is less elevated than in most species, and this brings the fore-centrals nearer to the straight line of the fore-laterals; these last are the largest of the eight. The height of the clypeus exceeds half that of the facial space.

The _legs_ are short and strong; their relative length 4, 1, 3, 2, or 4, 1, 2, 3, or 4, 1, 2-3; they are of a brownish yellow colour, deeper on their fore-sides, furnished with hairs, bristles, and spines, the latter not very numerous nor unusually strong; there are no spines on the outer sides of the genual joints of the third pair; the tarsal claws are longish and strong. Those of the superior pair have but one, two, or three pectinations on their underside; on some of the legs I could not detect any. There seemed to be no more uniformity in the tarsal-claw pectinations in this species than in others. The tarsal and metatarsal joints of the legs of the first pair have a fringe of close-set short blackish hairs on either side, as also have the digital joints of the palpi, these being similar to the legs in colour and armature; the humeral joints are very deep but narrow, being apparently bent and hollowed on their inner sides to allow of meeting well over the falces.

The terminal palpal claw has two teeth towards its base on the underside. I could not ascertain satisfactorily whether this is or not a uniform character in all examples; in one example these denticulations were very plain, but they seemed to be wanting in others.

The _falces_ are very strong and massive, round in their profile, and very roundly prominent near their base on the upper side. They are of a rich deep black-brown colour, glossy, and furnished along their inner margins with black bristles and hairs, and with strong spines at their extremity on the upper side. The fang is strong, and the outer margin of the groove in which it lies when at rest has some strong teeth.

The _maxillæ_ are strong, of normal form, but very convex on their outer surface.

The small tuberculous teeth noticed at the base on the inner side of the maxillæ of all the other species I have examined, were visible (though with difficulty) in this species also.

The _labium_ is broader than it is high, convex on its face, and rounded at the apex; it is (as also are the _maxillæ_ and _sternum_) of the same colour as the legs, and clothed with numerous strong bristly hairs.

The _abdomen_ is short-oval, and strongly convex above; it is of a dull clay-coloured brown tinged with chocolate, and along the centre of its upper side is a series of six strong angular bars or chevrons of a dark chocolate-brown colour, and pretty distinctly defined, though, when examined closely, broken in parts.

The intervening spaces between the angular bars and the sides have a few irregular markings of a similar colour; and they are connected by a longitudinal central line of the same hue running through their apices.

The abdomen is very sparingly clothed with hairs and fine bristles; the superior pair of spinners are strong; those of the inferior pair very small and short.

Examples of this fine and very distinct spider were found at Bordeaux in simple unbranched tubes, covered with a wafer-lid, running down very deep into the earth, in some cases as much as fifteen inches into an exceedingly hard soil, making it a work of great labour and care to get them out without injury.

This species can scarcely be confused with any other yet known; its short robust form, short legs, more elevated caput, general dark colour, distinct angular bars on the abdomen, and almost contiguous lateral eyes, as well as the form of the nest, will readily distinguish it.

It is with great pleasure that I connect with this spider the name of my most kind friend and brother arachnologist, Monsieur Eugène Simon, to whom I am so greatly indebted for much information and numerous examples of rare spiders.

I must not conclude these descriptions without expressing my sense of obligation to Mr. Moggridge for so kindly allowing me to add them to the far more popular, and more interesting, portion of this volume, in which the _habits_ of these spiders are recorded.

Descriptions of _colour_, _form_, and _structure_ are but dry details, though very necessary for the determination of species; and in the present case it is very important as well as interesting to be able to conclude with some certainty that differences of type in the tubular nests of the spiders Mr. Moggridge has observed so closely and accurately, are joined to well-marked specific differences obtained from those other characters above mentioned, and which it has been my endeavour to detail as fully and faithfully as possible.

INDEX TO SUPPLEMENT.