322 F. I\ SMITH ON SOME BRITISH SPIDERS TAKEN IN 1908. 



wards, having made a similar drawing from another specimen of 

 the same species, 1 happened to compare the two, and discovered 

 that they exhibited very considerable variation in several minor 

 characteristics. I began to fear that I had thrown away some- 

 thing valuable — new, probably, to the British list ; and I at once 

 set to work to collect long series of A. cucurbitina and to critically 

 examine the males. My lost specimen was, unfortunately, un- 

 localised. During 1907, in particular, I made some very 

 extensive collections of A. cucurbitina at Hastings and Bexhill, 

 but found nothing amongst them in any way departing from the 

 recognised type. My short stay at Bexhill, during 1908, as 

 previously mentioned, was mainly devoted to hunting Tarentulae, 

 but I bottled, in addition, a general assortment of specimens ; 

 and, on examining my captures later, discovered a single male 

 which agreed with my long-lost spider, and which turns out to 

 be the subspecies Aranea cucurbitina opistlwgrapha of Prof. 

 Kulczynski, new to the British list. During August Mr. 

 Hayward sent me a number of specimens obtained by beating 

 in the New Forest, and amongst these I was fortunate enough 

 to discover further males of this rarity. The female would 

 appear from the original description to be exceedingly like that 

 of A. cucurbitina typica, and I can at present give no really 

 tangible distinguishing character for this sex. The European 

 species of the " cucurbitina " group of the genus Aranea are dealt 

 with very fully by Prof. Kulczynski in " Fragmenta Arachnologica 

 II." {Bulletin de VAcademie des Sciences de Cracovie, 1905). 



Family THERIDIIDAE. 

 Asagena phalerata (Panz.), 1801. 



1801. Phalangium phal&ratum, Panz., Faun. Ins. Germ. 



1802. Aranea signata, Walck., Faune Par. 



1803. ,, seo'ratipes, Schrank, Fauna Boica. 

 1831. Theridium quadri-signatum, Hahn., Die Arach. 

 1864. Theridion signatum, BL, Spid. Q. B. I. 



1881. Asagena pkcderata, Canib., Spid. Dorset. 



A female of this very rare species was taken by Mr. W. 

 Pinkerton, at Watford. 



