402 Mr. R. H. Meade on the British species 0/ Phalangiidse. 



and front of the thorax are variegated with several irregular 

 brown ring-shaped marks. The dorsal band, which is of a 

 brown or blackish and sometimes reddish colour, generally with 

 a light streak down the centre and dark margins, extends from 

 the lateral edges of the thorax, opposite the insertion of the 

 second pair of legs, even to the last ring of the abdomen. The 

 band is wide in front, and gradually contracts in breadth to a 

 point opposite the attachment of the fourth pair of legs ; behind 

 this it bends alternately outwards and inwards, forming two or 

 three triangular projections on each side, and terminates in an 

 indistinct rounded point at the extremity of the abdomen. The 

 under surface of the body is whitish. 



The f aloes are strong (fig. 2 d), the second joint forming a 

 less acute angle at its point of curvature than in P. comutum. 



The palpi are rather longer and stronger than in the pre- 

 ceding species ; the second joint with a slightly projecting angle 

 at its inner extremity covered with a tuft of hair ; the third and 

 fourth joints short and thick, and as well as the second, varie- 

 gated with black or brown marks. 



The legs are long and striped with brown or black ; the distal 

 extremities of femora and tibise armed with short spines. 



The male (fig. 2 c) resembles the female in structure, but is 

 smaller and shorter, and is generally so much darker in colour, 

 that it has been mistaken by all authors for a distinct species. 



The falces and palpi are of the same form as in the female, 

 but the legs are much longer. 



The palpi and legs in adult individuals are often almost black ; 

 the upper surface of the cephalothorax and abdomen is also 

 frequently of the same colour, including the eye-eminence, and 

 it then has a pretty appearance from being studded with little 

 pearl-like white papillse or tubercles, arranged in transverse 

 rows across the abdomen, and scattered irregularly over the 

 thorax. The under surface and sides of the body are pure 

 white. 



This species is generally distributed over England, frequent- 

 ing woody and grassy places, where the females may be found 

 in various stages of growth during the whole summer, secreted 

 beneath stones. The males are not met with until the begin- 

 ning of autumn. The female of this species was first described 

 by Koch under the name of 0. lucorum ; his O. albescens is also 

 only a variety of the same species. 



The male is separately described and figured by him under 

 the name of O. grossipes, the title of a species described by 

 Herbst ; the figure and description given however by the latter 

 author are too vague for identification, therefore I have adopted 

 the name of urnigerum, under which the male was clearly de- 



