448 ARANEIDEA. ° 
Hab. Norra Amertca, Florida 1.—Mexico, Teapa in Tabasco (H. H. Smith *).— 
VENEZUELA, Caracas?; ANTILLES, St. Vincent °. 
The synonymy given above is based on E. Simon’s authority 3. 
Subfam. NEPHILINZ. 
The spiders here included for convenience under this subfamily comprise the giants 
amongst orb-weaving species, in the female sex at all events; for the male, as is well 
known, is exceedingly small in comparison. The orb-web is of immense size and very 
strong. I have seen them in the Amazonian forest stretched between trees situated 
twenty feet or more apart, the orb-shaped portion being three or four feet in diameter. 
The tangled mass of surrounding threads is tenanted by numbers of one or more 
species of the bright little silvery spiders of the genus Argyrodes, of the family 
Theridiide, as already noted, anted, p. 401. 
The vulva in the genus Nephila, the single genus included in the subfamily, is 
simple, as is also the palpus of the male. The carapace is convex, with often a pair 
of more or less well-developed cusps above, at the base of the cephalic area. The 
central ocular quadrangle is nearly square and the posterior row of eyes is straight. 
The legs are long and very strong, stiffly articulated; the fourth pair are without a 
tarsal comb beneath. The colulus is present. | 
NEPHILA. 
Nephila, Leach, Zool. Miscell. ii. p. 183 (1815). 
Type WV. maculata (Fabr.). India and Malay Archipelago. 
This genus may be distinguished from Argyope, of the subfamily Argyopine, by the 
convexity of the carapace, and by the ocular quadrangle being nearly square. 
A single species only, so far as I am able to recognize the distinctive characters, has 
been recorded from Central America. 
1. Nephila clavipes. (Tab. XLII. figg. 23, 23a, b, ¢; 24, 24a, 2.) 
Aranea clavipes, Linn. Syst. Nat. 12th edit. i. 2, p. 1084 (?)1. 
Nephila clavipes, Banks, Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. (3) i. p. 257°; F. P.~Cambr. Ann. & Mag. Nat. 
Hist. (7) vii. p. 825°. 
Aranea cornuta, Pallas, Spic. Zool. fase. ix. p..44‘. 
Aranea fasciculata, De Geer, Mém. Ins. vii. p. 316, t. 39. figg. 1-4 (9)*. 
Nephila plumipes, C. L. Koch, Die Arachn. vi. p. 188, t. 213. fig. 529 (9) °* 
Epeira plumipes, Walck. Ins. Apt. ii. p. 997. 
Nephila wildert, McCook, Amer. Spid. iii. p. 251, t. 7. fig. 2, t. 28. figg. 7,7a (3), t. 7. fig. 1, 
t. 23. figg. 6, 6a (92). 
Nephila wistariana, McCook, loc. cit. p. 252, t. 23. figg. 2, 2a-d (2), 8,84,b(¢)* 
Nephila concolor, McCook, loc. cit. p. 256, t. 23. figg. 1, La-e (9 yr. 
