August, 19 to. The Irish Naturalist, 141 



ON SOME RARE IRISH SPIDERS OBTAINED IN 1909 



WITH NOTES ON THE GENUS ERIGONE. 

 BY A. RANDEI.L JACKSON, M.B., D.SC. 



(Plate 3.) ^. 



Amongst a considerable number of spiders sent to me by Mr. 

 D. R. Pack-Beresford since the publication of his " Supple- 

 mentar}' List of the Spiders of Ireland"^ were two especially 

 interesting forms. These were Erigone capra, Sim., a spider 

 previously unknown in Britain and Ireland, and Lophocaremcvi 

 stra^nineiun^ Menge. Of the latter spider Mr. Pack-Beresford 

 had already obtained males on the island of Lambay,* and near 

 Bagenalstown, but the female is new to the Irish fauna and 

 neither sex has yet been recorded from Britain. Tlie present 

 record is based on two females, lately obtained near Bagenals- 

 town in a locality in which males had previously been found. 

 My identification was confirmed b}' the Rev. O. Pickard- 

 Cambridge. This little species possesses the ordinary Lopho- 

 carenum characters, viz. ; the sternum with the wide truncated 

 posterior termination, the back row of eyes with the strong 

 curve of which the convexity is directed backwards, the four 

 deep impressions arranged in pairs towards the anterior end 

 of the coriaceous dorsal surface of the abdomen, and the short 

 rather thick legs. 



From the other British species of lyOphocarenum the 

 structure of the vulva separates the present spider. In L. 

 parallelwn, BL, and L. Me?igii, Sim., this is very different, but 

 in L. nemorale, BL, the differences are minute, and the two 

 might easily be confused. I therefore give figures of the 

 epigyne in both species which I hope will facilitate the 

 recognition and separation of these two interesting little 

 animals. 



Mr. Beresford has lately informed me that the male has 

 occurred in yet a third Irish locality, viz. : — Carrickmacross, 

 in Count} Monaghan. 



Professor Kulczynski^ states that in his opinion the true L. 

 strami?ieuni of Menge is not the present species, and he has 



^Proc, Royal Irish Academy, Vol. xxvii., Sectiou B, No. 7, pp. 87-118. 

 Dublin, 1909. 



"^Irish Naturalist (Contrib. to the Nat. Hist, of lyambay, Co. Dublin), 

 p' 63, Jan. and Feb., 1907. 



3" Araueae Opera, Rev. Schmitz collect, in Ins. Maderianis," p. 61. 



