ON BRITISH ARACHNIDA. 109 



" by three pointed spines of unequal length ; the other lobe 

 " is contiguous to the inferior margin of the joint, and is 

 " terminated by a prominent slightly-curved pointed spine." 

 With this the figure in his plate of those organs exactly 

 agrees. In the other form, which we now conclude to be 

 a distinct species, the " bilobed process " described by 

 Mr. Blackwall is present, and near to it is another con- 

 spicuous and prominent, but less in size and terminating in 

 a curved pointed spine. The two forms are strikingly 

 similar in general colour and pattern, though both exhibit 

 variations, and hitherto I have myself found all attempts 

 to differentiate them satisfactorily by mere colours and 

 markings out of the question. So far as respects the males. 

 With regard to the females, we also find mixed up with this 

 sex in our collections two fairly differentiated forms. Mr. 

 Blackwall gives no figure of the critical point of structure 

 in that sex, but describes it in terms which apply well to his 

 type, which type agrees also with the female of E. Sturmii, 

 Jackson-Kul.-B6s. It would be not only satisfactory, but 

 most interesting, to find out which of the two forms I have 

 mentioned was probably that described as E. triguttata by 

 Fabricius, but this is, I think, out of the question, owing to 

 the brevity and vagueness of his description and to the 

 non-existence of any type of his species ; and, although 

 M. Simon describes two forms in his "Araneides de 

 France," one of which he considers to be that of Fabricius, 

 he gives no certain differentiation of the palpal organs of 

 the respective males. One of his forms he calls E. triguttata, 

 Fabr., the other E. Sttirmii, Hahn. Of all the other Con- 

 tinental authors I have been able to consult none give us 

 any real assistance, excepting two quite recent arachnolo- 

 gists, Prof. Lladislas Kulczynski and Herr Bosenberg. 

 These authors figure the palpal organs of their two forms 

 of the male and of the genital aperture and its process 

 (epigyne) of the respective females, but on what grounds 

 they have thus allocated the sexes of the two forms we are 



