1892.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 127 



February 2. 

 The President, General Isaac J. AVistar, in the chair. 



Forty-seven persons present. 



A paper entitled "The Development of the Shell in the coiled 

 stage of Baculites corapressus Say," by Amos P. Brown was pre- 

 sented for publication. 



The death of Andrew H. ^Miller a member, January 2H, was 

 announced. 



Drexelia, a Neiv Genus of Spiders. — Rev. H. C. McCook, D. D. 

 stated that Mr. Cambridge had described, under the name of Epe Ira 

 tetragnathoides, a species of spiders which without doubt is identical 

 with Epeira directa of Hentz. The late Count Keyserling in his 

 manuscript notes as edited by Dr. George Marx, applies the name 

 of Epeira deludens to the same species, and it is so catalogued, in 

 litteris, by Dr. Marx in his Catalogue of North American Arane?e. 

 Specimens in the speaker's collection, which are beyond doubt iden- 

 tical with Hentz's Epeira directa, have been carefully compared 

 with specimens in the Marx collection, identified by Keyserling as 

 his Epeira deludens, and both, again, with the descriptions of E. 

 tetragnathoides by Cambridge in "Biologia Centrali Americana." 



Not only is the specific name of Hentz thus restored, but it 

 becomes necessary to make this species the tyj^e of a new genus, 

 which Dr. McCook had named Drexelia, in recognition of the noble 

 contribution to scientific and industrial education made by our 

 fellow townsman, Mr. Anthony J. Drexel. Drexelia is separated 

 sharply from Epeira by the peculiar elongated shape of the sternum, 

 which is at least twice as long as wide; and further, by the char- 

 acter of the maxill?e, which are longer than wide; and still further 

 by the shape of the abdomen, which is long, narrow, straight, and, 

 especially in the female, somewhat compressed both at the base and 

 the apex. The legs, too, are less stout than those of the typical 

 Epeira. In the form of the maxillre Drexelia approaches both 

 Nephila and Meta, but difl^ers from both and in a more marked 

 degree from Epeira, in relatively greater length of the sternum. It 

 differs also from these genera in the form of the abdomen, that of 

 Nephila being long as in Drexelia, but sub-cylindrical in form ; that 

 of Meta being a rounded oval, approaching thus the typical Epeira. 

 In the shape of the abdomen Drexelia somewhat resembles Tetrag- 

 natha, a fact which doubtless suggested the name given by Cambridge. 

 It also approaches this genus in the rather slight and feebly armed 

 character of the legs; but the mouth parts and sternum, to say 

 nothing of other characteristics, widely divide these two genera. 

 Drexelia approaches Epeira in the contour of the face and head, 



