172 ARANEIDEA. 
Following this, on either side of the median line, is a zigzag or angulated blackish stripe, the two 
rather converging backwards, and formed by what remains of the normal transverse angular lines or 
chevrons ; in some specimens these are mere spots. The sides and underside are thickly clothed with 
coarse white hairs, and obscurely spotted or marked with blackish. Spinners normal. 
The female resembles the male in colours and markings. The genital aperture is much obscured by pale hairs, 
but is of characteristic though simple form. 
Hab. Mexico, Teapa in Tabasco (H. H. Smith). 
Mr. Smith has the following note on this species:—‘“ On the white-washed clay 
walls of our verandah the web is an irregular net spread flat against the wall; often 
more or less radiating in form, and from half an inch to two or three inches in 
diameter. Small insects alighting on the wall are caught in these webs, which in 
many places quite cover the surface of the wall. The spiders conceal themselves under 
thick parts of the web, or behind insects that have been caught; in several instances 
I found two females close together. The males were in similar webs. The egg- 
cocoons attached to the wall near the webs are lenticular, or flat on the side next the 
wall, and convex on the other side, white, pretty thick, and strong, and about as large 
as the spiders themselves.” 
This account is of much interest, as it details quite a different habit of life from that 
of the European species of this genus. A cocoon accompanying the spiders contained 
only nine or ten eggs. 
Dictyna grandis, sp. n. 
Adult female, length 3% lines. 
Cephalothoraw much longer than broad, but generally of normal form. Colour dark brown, with a broad 
central longitudinal yellowish band from the eyes to the thoracic junction. This band, as well as the 
sides of the upper part of the caput, the ocular area, and clypeus, is densely clothed with coarse white 
adpressed hairs, and a dark brown longitudinal dash shows on either side past the occiput ; the thorax has 
also a marginal yellow border clothed with white hairs. 
Eyes normal; the central quadrangle rather broader than long, and its anterior side slightly narrower than 
the posterior. 
Falces deep brown, clothed with coarse white hairs at their base in front. 
Palpi yellowish, clothed with coarse white hairs, except the digital joint, which has brown hairs. 
Legs short, tolerably strong, 1, 2, 4, 3, dull brownish-yellow, obscurely banded with brown, and densely 
clothed with white and brown hairs only. The profile line of the metatarsi of the fourth pair is 
distinctly hollow ; and the calamistrum extends very nearly from end to end. 
Mawille, labium, and sternum normal, of a dark brown colour, the latter clothed with coarse white hairs, 
most densely on the margins. 
Abdomen large, of a regular oval form, obtuse at each end, densely clothed with short white and brown hairs. 
It is of a dull luteous colour, with a large dark brown, oblong-oval, longitudinal marking on the fore half 
of the upperside, margined with whitish, and its posterior extremity somewhat bifid; this is followed towards 
the spinners by two pairs of oblique dark brown lines, their obliquity being directed inwards and back- 
wards ; between them and the spinners is a dark brown patch tapering from its fore end to the spinners, 
a whitish stripe runs on each side longitudinally through the oblique lines and along the margins of the 
succeeding brown patch ; the sides are suffused with brown, darkest near the hinder part, and obscurely 
spotted with brown. The underside has a broad deep brown central longitudinal band running from 
the spinners to the genital aperture, and has a whitish marginal border. The genital aperture is incon- 
spicuous, but of characteristic form. Anal tubercle large, and clothed above with coarse white hairs. 
