286 SPECIFIC DESCRIPTIONS OF 



scription of N. meridionalis ? (Cambr. I.e.). It is not 

 invariable in a long series of female examples ; occa- 

 sionally one is found with four spines on one of these 

 genual joints, in others there is occasionally but one 

 spine and sometimes (but rarely) none ; perhaps in this 

 case broken off? I am inclined to attach some impor- 

 tance as a specific character to the number, presence, 

 or absence of these spines on the outer side of the 

 genual joint of the third pair of legs ; not that it is an 

 invariable character, few, if any, specific characters are 

 absolute and invariable, nor that it is of more impor- 

 tance than the armature of other portions of the dif- 

 ferent legs, but as being more easily observed and 

 less liable to injury than the larger and more nu- 

 merous spines on other parts. Equally useful in 

 specific determination are the spines at the fore- 

 extremity on the upper side of the radial joint of the 

 palpus. This, however, applies only to the male, 

 whereas the character derived from the spines on 

 the genual joints of the third pair of legs applies to 

 both sexes. 



Another character by which the present species 

 (?) may be distinguished from N. dubia {N. ccsmen- 

 taria, Sim.) is that the former is rather narrower 

 at the fore extremity of the caput, which is also less 

 elevated, being almost equally level with the thorax. 



The description of the female given (I.e. supra) 

 needs but little addition. It may be noticed, how- 

 ever, that the central longitudinal tapering orange 

 band on the caput is faintly continued to the extreme 

 hinder margin of the thorax, and the thoracic fovea is 

 rather sharply curved. The intervals between the 

 eyes is the same as in those of N. Mo^gridgii, though 



