138 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 



Writing iu 1872 L. Koch described two species of spiders 

 from the Philippine Islands and Borneo, for which he created 

 the genus Nephilengys at the same time upbraiding his friend 

 the celebrated arachnologist the Rev. O. P. Cambridge, for 

 having included in the genus Nephila, Leach, a spider from the 

 island of "Taprobane," named by him N. rivulata but which, as 

 L. Koch felt, differed too markedly from the type of this genus 

 to be possibly included and which belonged to the type of his 

 Nephilengys. A fourth species from the Malabar Coast placed 

 by Walckenaer in his genus Epeira completed the list of those 

 known to L. Koch. 



In publishing the " Australian Spiders " he utilised the oppor- 

 tunity to describe the two above-noted species, and to bring 

 forward his new genus, in the anticipation that through its 

 connection, by chains of islands, to the Philippine group, some 

 species might be found on the Australian continent. 



In looking over Professor Spencer's specimens I tind two 

 females, superficially somewhat like Argiope, which prove, on 

 examination, to have marked characteristics of each of the genera 

 Nephila, Herennia, Argiope, and Gea (Ebcea, L. Koch), genera 

 which, all allied, form successive groups of M. Eugene Simon's 

 adjacent sub-families Nephilinse and Argiopime. 



They seem to me, however clearly, not confined within the 

 bounds of any one of these groups, and I had decided on a new 

 genus for them, when I was struck with their conformity with 

 L. Koch's above-mentioned genus, combined with his anticipation 

 that it would possibly be found in Australia. 



The genus was clearly made for them, and they might be its 

 type form. 



They now turn up, twenty-five years afterwards, in one of his 

 best searched hunting grounds. 



M. Simon, in his splendid work " Histoire N-aturelle des 

 Araignees " now being published, puts the genus back into 

 Nephila. His argument that it I'uns into Nephila would equally 

 serve for connecting through this species all the genera from 

 Nephila to certainly Gea, and perhaps Epeira (Araneus, E. 

 Simon). 



The side eyes, besides being nearly as wide apart (2^ diams.) 

 as the front and rear median, approach the latter almost as 

 closely as the median themselves lie from one another. 



I 



