DAG _ ARANEIDEA. 
EPEIRA, Walckenaer. 
Epeira merens, sp. n. 
Adult female, length very nearly 6 lines, 
Cephalothorax much longer than broad; caput somewhat produced and squarely truncated in front ; lateral 
marginal impressions moderate; normal indentations strong; profile rather flattened. It is brownish- 
yellow in colour, covered with greyish hairs, and with a broad, longitudinal, central, dark brown band, 
somewhat angulated on the edges and broadest near the occiput; on the thorax are some indistinct 
converging brown stripes. 
Eyes in normal position, three groups on prominences at the fore margin of the caput and occupying its whole 
width. The central group of four eyes forming a trapezoid broader than long, with its anterior side much 
longer than its posterior side: the anterior eyes of this group are largest of the eight, seated on each side 
of an obtusely-pointed projection of the central prominence, and separated from each other by less than 
a diameter’s interval ; the interval between the posterior pair is equal to a diameter. The eyes of each 
lateral pair are divided by an interval equal to the diameter of the fore-lateral eye. Height of clypeus 
equal to a diameter of one of the fore-central eyes. 
Legs moderately long, strong, 1, 2, 4, 3, furnished with hairs and numerous strong spines. Colour yellowish, 
femora orange; annulated (excepting the femora of the first pair at their extremity) distinctly and 
tolerably thickly with deep brown. 
Falces powerful, vertical, subconical. 
Mawille short, broad, dark yellow-brown; margin broadly whitish. 
Labium broader than high, rather pointed at the apex, which is white. 
Sternum subtriangular, with prominences opposite the coxal joints of the legs. Colour deep brown, with a 
strong dumb-bell-shaped yellow spot (or two ordinary spots coalescing) on each side of the margin on the 
fore half, followed backwards by a single spot of the same colour. 
Abdomen large, subtriangular, furnished with a few hairs; on each side near the fore margin is a strong conical 
eminence, each followed by two much smaller tubercular prominences in a longitudinal line at the middle 
of the outer margin; at the upper hinder extremity is a group of five different-sized subconical eminences, 
three in a transverse line, with another in the middle in advance of the line, the fifth behind it forming a 
four-cornered or diamond-shaped area; between the hinder eminences and the spinners the abdomen is 
strongly and transversely rugulose. The whole of the upperside and sides are of a deep bistre-brown 
colour mixed with yellowish points ; a slender but very distinct transverse yellow line, slightly curved in 
the middle and broken near each end, runs from apex to apex of the two anterior conical prominences ; 
the anterior edge of this line is furnished with a narrow fringe of short, rather shining, white hairs. 
The two eminences on each side are yellow, and between them on the middle of the upperside are 
two broken yellow-margined black lines or spots, one on each side converging towards the posterior group 
of prominences, and representing the normal Epeirid abdominal frondose pattern. Spinners short, 
compact, black-brown, with a short, yellow, curved bar on each side towards tne front. Underside brown, 
with two median yellow spots in a transverse line just behind the genital process, followed by two others 
much smaller and indistinct, but also in a transverse line. Genital process strong, bent, and of charac- 
teristically distinct form. 
Hab. Mexico, Atoyac in Vera Cruz (H. H. Smith). 
METAGONIA, Simon. 
Metagonia caudata. 
Metagonia caudata, Cambr. antea, p. 150, t. 21. figg. 8, 8 a-d. 
The female only of this spider was described (J. ¢. supra). The adult male mecsures 13 lines in length. In 
general colours and appearance this sex closely resembles the female. ‘The caput, however, has a broad 
yellow-brownish longitudinal central band, including the eyes and narrowing to the thoracic indentation ; 
