90 TERTIARY INSECTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



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

 corselet. (These organs an- incorrectly given in tin- plate, which was 

 drawn before the specimen had been properly prepared.) 



The Hrsr pair of legs arc the longest, the third the shortest, and the 

 M-cond and fourth of equal length, moderately slender, the tirst and fourth, 

 and to a less derive the second. I'urnished at the extremity of the tibia- with 

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

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

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

 appeal- to occupv about half (the distal half) of the tibia ; there appears to 

 be no such brush on the third pair of le-'s, 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 the appendages. With this omis- 

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



The thoracic portion of the cephalothorax is subglobnlar, a little 

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

 its u-reateM at the end of the basal third : the abdomen is oblong ovate, 

 about two and a half times longer than broad, with well rounded apev 



Lei:-th of body. 1 I"""; of abdomen. S.5"""; width, 3.7 mm ; length of 

 palpi beyond the trout of body. _""'": length of first pair of legs, 26 mra ; first 

 tarsal joint, 8.25"; second joint, iVJo"" 11 : of hair-tuft, 3.5-3.75 mm ; second 

 pair of legs, W"': first tarsal joint. 1:2'}'"'": second joint, -J.'-'.")""": of hair- 

 tuft, --'.."i"" 11 : third pair <>f legs. IM.V" 1 "; first tarsal joint, 4.')'""'; second joint, 

 \.:->' m ": fourth pair of legs. 23 mni ; tirst tarsal joint. 7""": second joint, 2 mm ; 

 of hair-tuft, 4.')""": diameter of eves. O.r2"" n . 



The general resemblance of this spider to Nephila plumipes Koch of 

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

 will strike everj American naturalist at a glance. It is, howevei, a much 

 smaller species, if the fossil be fully uroun, and differs from it in some 

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

 siderablv. although the 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 tibia?. 

 Nephila is essentially a tropical genus. 



Florissant. One 9 , No. 11651. 



