470 ARANEIDEA. 
Hab. Mexico, Chilpancingo, Cuernavaca (H. H. Smith); Costa Rica, San José 
(Sarg). 
It is possible that WV. conifera may be a dwarf form only of WV. oaxracensis ; but in 
the examples of the male the differential characters are distinct and constant, and in 
the female the convexity of the base of the vulva is quite evident in the few examples 
before me. 
3. Neoscona benjJamina. (Tab. XLIV. figg. 8, 8a, 6, 2.) 
Epeira benjamina, Walck. Ins. Apt. ii. p. 42'; Abbot, Georgian Spid. figg. 126, 351°; McCook, 
Amer. Spid. ii. p. 147, t. 1. figg. 7, 7a, 6, t. 2. fig. 4, t. 28. fig. 18 (2), t. 1. figg. 7c, 
t. 2. fig. 5(¢)?. 
Epeira benjamini, Keyserl. Spinn. Amer., Epeiride, p. 134, t. 7. figg. 100, 100 a, b(2)*. 
Epeira domiciliorum, Hentz, Journ. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. v. p. 469, t. 30. fig. 7 (2)°; Spid. U.S. 
(ed. Burgess), p. 108, t. 12. fig. 7 (¢)°; Emerton, Trans. Conn. Acad. Sci. vi. p. 312, 
t. 33. fig. 17 (2), t. 86. figg. 1,4 (¢)”. 
Epeira hentzii, Keyserl. Sitzungsb. nat. Ges. Isis, Dresden, 1863, p. 97, t. 5. figg. 10, 11(¢9)°. 
Type of E. hentzi in coll. Dr. L. Koch, Nuremberg. Total length (sec. McCook), ¢ 6, 2 15 millim. 
2. Identified from examples in coll. Keyserling (Mus. Brit.), labelled by him F. hentzii=E. domiciliorum, 
Hentz, these agreeing sufficiently with McCook’s description of VV. benjamina (Walck.). 
Carapace unicolorous brown, paler in the centre. Abdomen with the folium as figured on our Plate. Legs 
annulate, femora i. and ii. less distinctly ; tibie and protarsi i. and ii. with a median, as well as a basal 
and apical, annulus, ii. and iv. without the median. Central white spot on the ventral area oval. Posterior 
central eyes less, and the anterior centrals more, than a diameter apart, both being three diameters from 
the laterals. Femora i. and ii. without rows of spines beneath. Vulva strongly geniculate at the apex ; 
apex of scapus oval-elongate, narrowed about the middle and deeply concave, the infra-marginal tubercle 
prominent when seen from above. 
The male, according to Emerton, has tibia ii. straight, or nearly so, and armed with a double row of short spines 
on the inner side, the basal spines being scarcely longer than the rest, thus differing from the same sex 
of WV. trivittata (Keys.), in which tibia ii. is strongly curved. No mention is made by Keyserling, 
Emerton, or McCook of a cone on coxa iv., so that this is probably absent. 
Hab. Norta America '~®, California *.—Mexico (coll. Keyserling, in Mus. Brit.). 
4. [Neoscona theis. (Tab. XLIV. figg. 9,9 a-d, ¢; 10, 10 a-d, 2.) 
Epeira theis, Walck. Ins. Apt. 11. p. 538, t. 18. fig. 4 (1840) (?)*. 
Epeira mangareva, Walck. op. cit. iv. p. 469°; Thorell, Ann. Mus. Genova, xiii. p. 65 (1878) *; 
op. cit. xvii. p. 115 (1881) *. 
Epeira triangulifera, Thorell, loc. cit. p. 65°. 
Epeira ventricosa, E. longispina, E. multispina, E. etheridgei, E. festiva, E. obscura, Rainbow, 
Mem. Austral. Mus. ii. pp. 110-120, tt. 3, 4°. 
[Nec E. theisit, Keyserl. Spinn. Amer., Epeiride, p. 246; McCook, Amer. Spid. iii. p. 166; 
Simon, P. Z. 8. 1897, p. 874.] 
Examples, ¢ and @, in Mus. Brit., from Funafuti. Total length, ¢ 7 , 2 12 millim. 
¢. Differs from NV. oaxacensis and NV. contfera in wanting the conical spur on coxa iv., and in having fewer 
spines on the inner side of tibia ii.; and from the American species without a spur on coxa iv. in the 
