44 Mr. W. Clark on the Skeneadse. 



differs in magnitude, in colour, in the relative size of its eyes, 

 and, as regards the male, in the structure of its palpi and palpal 

 organs. It commonly occupies a cell of compact white silk, con- 

 structed on the inferior surface of leaves and of lichens growing 

 on the trunks of trees in the woods of North Wales. Though 

 not particularly active in its general movements, yet it can leap 

 with agility. 



61. Clubiona comta. 



Clubiona comta, Koch, Die Arachn. B. vi. p. 16. tah. 185. fig. 440 ; 

 and B. x. p. 129. tab. 358. fig. 841. 



compta, Walck. Hist. Nat. des Insect. Apt. t. ii. p. 478. 



fucata, Blackw. Linn. Trans, vol. xviii. p. 605. 



Clubiona fucata, Blackw., which is identical with the Clubiona 

 comta of M. Koch, is placed by M, Walckenaer among the syno- 

 nyma of Clubiona corticalis (Hist. Nat. des Insect. Apt. t. iv. 

 p. 439) ; yet it is not only very much smaller than that species, 

 from which it differs decidedly in colour and in the relative size 

 of its eyes, but the structure of the palpi and of the palpal organs 

 also is widely dissimilar in the male. 



I have taken this rare spider in the woods of Denbighshire and 

 Caernarvonshire. It conceals itself among the foliage in sum- 

 mer, constructing a cell of white silk on the inferior surface of 

 a leaf, the sides of which are curved towards it and retained in 

 that position by fine lines of silk. The male has the palpal or- 

 gans completely developed in June, and in that month females 

 may be seen having the abdomen greatly distended with eggs. 



A specimen of Clubiona comta, captured by Miss Ellen Clayton 

 at Church Town, in the north of Lancashire, was transmitted to 

 me, with some other spiders, in the summer of 1843. 



V. — On the Skeneadse. By William Clark, Esq. 

 To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History. 



Gentlemen, Exmouth, June 3, 1851. 



I present an account of a highly important unrecorded animal, 

 that has long been sought for, not only by the simple malaco- 

 logist, but by the professors of the science, to settle the apocry- 

 phal family of the Skeneadse. To show that its acquisition is 

 very desirable, I need only mention that Professor Forbes did me 

 the honour to request that I would include this minute creature 

 in my researches, as he thought it would in all probability re- 

 solve a malacological problem. I subjoin a rude sketch of the 

 animal. 



