On EUROPEAN SPIDERS. 133 
disproportionately large, protruding and wide apart, their outer brims extend- 
ing nearly to the entire length of the anterior row, according to CAMBRIDGE 
loc. cit. 
Of the two families into which WALCRENAER divided this genus, per- 
haps the 2", "les Nysses, Nyss@”, deserves to form a separate genus: Nys- 
sus WALCK. 18051) = Arachne Sav. et AuD. ?). According to WALCKE- 
NAER >), Megamyrmecium [Megamyrmekion] Reuss *) or Dyction WALCK. °) 
is identical with Arachne SAV. et AUD. 
The derivation of the name given above, is that generally adopted, 
and the only one which affords a rationel meaning to it. I therefore write 
Agalena, not Agelena, as is usually the custom. It is an additional reason 
for writing Agalena, that WALCKENAER himself, when he used that word as 
a specific name (in " Epeira agalena") always wrote it thus. 
The long, powerful, superior tarsal claws, in the typical species, 
have 10 or 12 comb-teeth, the inferior 3 or 4 long, curved, pointed teeth. 
On the palpal claw, which is more slender, I have counted 6 teeth rapidly 
increasing in length, and pointing more forwards. The superior tarsal claws 
of the 4" pair have about 14 teeth. 
Gen. 12. HISTOPONA wn. 
Deriv.: éords, web; zovéo, work. 
Syn.: 1834 Agelena C. Koch, in Herr.-Scuærr., Deutschl. Ins., (ad part.:) 125, 11. 
1837. Tegenaria 1D., Uebers. d. Arachn.-Syst., 1, p. 13 (ad partem). 
1841. A Warck., H. N. d. Ins. Apt., II, p. 1 (ad partem). 
1841. Textrix C. Kocu, Die Arachn., VIII, (ad part.:) p. 48. 
1864. 5 [Tectrix] Srw., H. N. d. Araignées, p. 219 (ad partem). 
Type: Histopona torpida (C. Koch). 2 
The spider we have chosen as type for this genus has, as we see, 
been referred by C. Kocx first to Agalena, then to Tegenaria, and lastly 
to Textrix. To me it appears to stand about midway between the two last 
mentioned genera; it differs from Textriæ in that the cephalothorax is less 
high and less compressed in front, with a forehead that is not prominent, 
1) Tableau d. Aran., p. 52. 
2) Deser. de l'Égypte, (2 Ed.:) XXII, p. 314. 
3) Hist. Nat. d. Ins. Apt., II, p. 419. 
4) Zool. Mise., Arachn., p. 211 (217). 
5) Hist. Nat. d. Ins. Apt., I, p. 380. 
