180 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1889. 



July 2. 

 Mr. Thomas Meehan, Vice-President, in the chair. 

 Nine persons present. 



The following papers were presented for publication : — 



"Nomenclature and Check-List of North American Land Mol- 

 lusks." By H. A. Pilsbry. 



"The Origin and Meaning of Sex." By John A. Ryder. 



"A review of the American Species of Sturgeons (Accipen- 

 seridae)." By Philip H. Kirsch and Morton W. Fordice. 



July 9. 

 Rev. H. C. McCook, D. D., Vice-President, in the chair. 



Twenty persons present. 



Note on the true Systematic Position of the Bay Spider. — Dr. Henry 

 C. McCook remarked that he had been recently led to reinvestigate 

 the character of the web of the Ray spider and its proper systematic 

 place. 



When the snare of this aranead was first discovered by him in 

 1881, and described in the Proceedings of this Academy 1 he con- 

 sidered the spider new to science, and gave it the name of Epeira 

 radiosa in a paper containing a careful and detailed description of 

 its spinningwork and habits. He then indicated that it would 

 probably be assigned to a new genus, and subsequently in a verbal 

 communication to this Academy, proposed for it the name of Aetis 

 radiosa. Emerton, in his monograph of the New England Epeirada?, 

 created for it the genus Microepeira? Subsequent investigation had 

 led Dr. McCook to believe that the spider belongs to Cambridge's 

 genus Theridiosoma? and probably is identical with the European 

 species Theridiosoma gemmosum of Dr. L. Koch. 4 This genus has 

 a marked resemblance to Epeira, as Cambridge himself allows, and 

 certainly on the ground of structure appears to be at least equally 

 related to the Epeiroids. 



1 Proc. Acad. Natural Sciences. Phila., 1881, pp. 163-75. 



2 New England Spider of the Family Epeiradse. Transactions Connecticut 

 Academy, Volume VI., 1884, p. 320. 



3 Rev. O. Pickard-Cambridge, Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 1879, 

 p. 193. 



4 Theridium gemmosum : Verzeichniss der bei Nurnberg beob. Arten. p. 69. 



