NEW AND RARE BRITISH SPIDERS. 117 



tapering, curved spine, nearer their extremity, on the inner side. 

 Also at their base on the outer side is a strong, somewhat curved, 

 triangular process, analogous to that found in the same position in 

 numerous other species of Linyphia (Latr), and the precise form 

 of which is usually an unfailing specific character. So here, again, 

 the form of this process differs from that of the closely allied 

 species mentioned below. The falces are rather long, powerful, 

 and prominent towards their base in front. 



The genital process of the female is prominent, obtuse, straight, 

 and directed a very little backwards, being nearly vertical. 



This spider is closely allied to Tmeticus scopiger (Grube) 

 (Linyphia rufa, Westr. and Cambr., Spid. Dors., p. 550), and 

 resembles it in its general character and structure ; but it may be 

 easily distinguished by the rather larger size and closer grouping of 

 the eyes, the less height of the clypeus, and, especially in the male, 

 by the group of bristles at the end of the digital prominence of the 

 palpi. In the present spider these bristles are graduated in length 

 from the shortest to the longest ; black and single-jointed, whereas 

 they are of a pale hue, longer, but of equal length, and rather 

 enlarged and sub-divided at their points in T. scopiger, and the 

 prominence itself is less obtuse than in that species. The spider 

 itself is also rather smaller. The spines also on the legs in T. 

 scopiger are more numerous and stronger. 



The abdominal pattern (of which I can find no trace in the many 

 females I have examined of T. scopiger), together with the short, 

 straight, genital process, will serve to render the female of T. 

 Warburtonii equally distinguishable. In T. scopiger this process 

 is bent in the middle, and then runs parallel with the under side of 

 the abdomen for the rest of its length. 



Examples of both sexes were found among grass on the flats 

 among the sandhills near Southport, in Lancashire, in the late 

 summer time of 1887, by Mr. Cecil "\Varburton, of Christchurch, 

 Cambridge, and kindly sent to me for identification. It is an 

 exceedingly interesting species, being so very nearly allied to T. 

 scojriger, and yet so unmistakably distinct. 



