90 TERTIARY INSECTS OF NOKTII AMERICA. 



front of the body by a little more than half the width of the front of the 

 corselet. (These organs are incorrectly given in the plate, which was 

 drawn before the specimen had been properl\' prepared.) 



The first pair of legs are the longest, the tliird the shortest, and the 

 second and fonrtli of eqnal length, moderately slender, the first and fourth, 

 and to a less degree the second, furnished at the extremity of the tibiae with 

 a brush of coarse divergent hairs, giving this portion of tlie leg the appear- 

 ance of being about half as broad again as it should be ; all the joints of 

 the legs can not be made out, but, to judge by analogy, the brush would 

 appear to occupy about half (the distal half) of the tibia ; there appears to 

 be no such brush on the third pair of legs, nor any marked increase of hairi- 

 ness or stoutness of the hairs at the tips of the femora. The legs have also 

 been worked out of the stone since the plate was drawn, so that they are 

 nearly complete, with the exception of tlie appendages. With this omis- 

 sion the tarsi compose scarcely less than two-fifths of the whole leg. 



The thoracic portion of the cephalothorax is siibglobular, a little 

 broader than the corselet and just equaling the width of the abdomen at 

 its greatest at the end of the basal third; the abdomen is oblong ovate, 

 about two and a lialf times longer than broad, with well rounded apex. 



Length of body, 14'""'; of abdomen, S.S"-"; width, S.?"""; length of 

 palpi beyond the front of body, 2°""; length of first pair of legs, 26°"°; first 

 tarsal joint, 8.25""" ; second joint, 2.25°"°; of hair-tuft, 3.5-3.75"": second 

 pair of legs, 23"""; first tarsal joint, 7.25°'°'; second joint, 2.25"°'; of hair- 

 tuft, 2.5"°'; third pair of legs, IS.S""; first tarsal joint, 4.5"°'; second joint, 

 1.5""; fourth pair of legs, 23"°'; first tarsal joint. 7"": second joint, 2""; 

 of hair-tuft, 4.5""; diameter of eyes, 0.12"". 



The general resemblance of this spider to Nephila plumipes Koch of 

 our southern Atlantic sea-board, familiar to us by the researches of Wilder, 

 will strike every American naturalist at a glance. It is, however, a much 

 smaller species, if tlie fossil l)e fully grown, and differs from it in some 

 striking points, very probably of generic importance. The eyes differ con 

 siderably, although tlie position of only two of those of the fossil species 

 is known; the corselet is squarer in the fossil, and per contra the abdomen 

 is oval and not quadrate; while the tarsi are unusually long in proportion 

 to the whole leg; the tufts of hairs occur only on the extremity of the tibiae. 

 Nephila is essentially a tropical genus. 

 Florissant. One 9 , No. 11651. 



