452 ARANEIDEA. 
spine lying closely within its concavity. ‘This spine 1s simple throughout, not barbed, 
except that it has a minute barbule towards the apex. 
MIRANDA. 
Miranda, C. Lu. Koch, Deutsch. Ins. (Panzer) Heft 128. 14 (1835). 
Type UM. transalpina, C. L. Koch, = Aranea bruennichii, Scopoli (sec. auct.). Europe. 
The species of this genus, which includes the well-known M. bruennichit (Scopoli) 
and M. cophinaria (Walckenaer), are distinguished at once, at least in the female 
sex, by the shape of the vulval orifice, this latter forming a single, deep, circular 
concavity, not divided by a septum, lying below a long scape. Only one species 
occurs, so far as at present known, in the Western Hemisphere, and this is abundant 
in North and Central America. 
1. Miranda cophinaria. (Tab. XLIII. figg. 4, 4a, 3; 5, 5a-c, 2.) 
Argyope cophinaria, Walck. Ins. Apt. ii. p. 109’; Abbot, Georgian Spiders, fig. 151°; McCook, 
Amer. Spid. ii. p. 217, t. 15. figg. 5, 6, t. 16. figg. 6, 6a (3), t. 15. figg. 1-4, t. 16. figg. 5, 
5a-c (¢?)’*. 
Argiope cophinaria, Marx, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. xu. p. 541 *. 
Epeira ambitoria, Walck. loc. cit. p. 112°. 
Nephila vestita, C. L. Koch, Die Arachn. v. p. 35, t. 158. fig. 858°. 
Epeira riparia, Hentz, Journ. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. v. p. 468"; Spid. U.S. p. 106, t. 12. fig. 5(2)*; 
Cragin, Bull. Washb. Coll. i. no. 4, p. 149°. 
Argiope riparia, Emerton, Trans. Conn, Acad. Sci. vi. p. 329, t. 34. fig. 19 °°. 
Argiope personata, O. P.-Cambr. Biol. Centr.-Amer., Arachn. Aran. i. p. 110, t. 14. figg. 14, 
14a-d (2); Banks, Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. (3) i. p. 257. 
Argiope godmani, O. P.-Cambr. loc. cit. p. 236, t. 37. figg. 8, 8a-f(9)™. 
Types, 2, of A. personata and A. godmani, in coll. Godman & Salvin. Total length 28-30 millim. 
Hab. Norra America !~8 9 !°.—Mextco, Acapulco (H. H. Smith"), Tepic, San Miguel 
de Horcasitas (fide Banks”); GuatTeMaLa, Guatemala city (Stod/ 18), 
The spiders belonging to Miranda and the allied genera vary very much in the 
coloration of the legs. These latter are, for instance, brown, with black annulations 
in I. personata (var.), and entirely jet-black in M. godmani (var.). 
The vulva of the female of MZ. cophinaria is produced into a long scape, compressed- 
spatuliform towards the apex, the margin somewhat reflexed, having a single circular 
orifice at its base beneath. The bulb of the palpus of the male has two long, broad, 
conspicuous lamine, converging at their apex, the tip of the upper lamina lying on the 
concavity of the lower (probably variable in this respect), together giving the bulb a 
forcipated appearance. For the habits of this abundant species, see McCook [Amer. 
Spid. vols. i. & ii.]. 
