TS NEW BRITAIN, THE SOLOMON ISLANDS, LOYALTY ISLANDS, ETC. 109 



Gexus. Fecenia, Simon. 

 Bull. Soc. Ent. France, 1887, p. cxciv. (for Mezentia, Thor. preoccupied). 



Fecenia angustata (Thorell). 



PI. X. Fig. 6. 



Mezentia angustata, Thorell, Ann. Mus. Genova xvn., p. 204, 1881. 



Loc. New Britain. 



A mutilated specimen agreeing with angustata from Ternate in colour and not 

 disagreeing with the description of it in any reliable structural features, was obtained. 



Mr WiUey fortunately secured this specimen when guarding its newly hatched 

 young. The nest consists of an irregular shaped silken sac adhering tightly to the 

 surface of a rolled leaf with one or two arched apertures (for the ingress and egress 

 of the mother) round the margin. The edges of the leaf are held together with 

 silk and thus form a tubular chamber for the support and protection of the nest. 



This cocoon-nest is very different from the nest of F. cylindrata discovered by 

 Mr Oates in Burma (see Thorell, Spiders of Burma, pp. 64 — CO, 1895). This nest, 

 which according to Mr Oates is placed horizontally in the centre of the web, consists 

 of a straight tube of silk interwoven with twigs, seeds, etc., open at its broad end 

 but closed at the narrow opposite extremity. Since the spider found in this tube 

 i- an immature female, it is possible that the cylindrical nest is constructed for pro- 

 tection during the process of moulting. 



Mr Willey's discovery of the cocooning habits of Fecenia are of great interest, 

 since they till up an important gap in our knowledge and show how the genus 

 differs in this respect from its near ally Psechrus, which according to Mons. Simon 

 carries the cocoon in its jaws. This difference of habit between the two is exactly 

 paralleled by the two Heteropodine genera Sparassus and Heteropoda, the latter carrying 

 the cocoon, the former enclosing it in a rolled leaf. 



Family. Oxyopidae. 



Gexus. Oxyopes, Latr. 

 Oxyopes macilentus, L. Koch. 



L. Koch, Die Arachniden Austral. II., p. 1000, PL LXXXVII, Figs. 4—5. 



Thorell, Ann. Mus. Genova xvn., pp. 393—395, 1881. 



Loc. New Britain. 



This species has been recorded by Koch from Cape York, Gayndah, Bowen, Port 

 Mackay and Rockhampton in Australia and by Thorell from Arfak and Ramoi in New 

 Guinea. 



The specimens (</\ ? ) collected by Mr Willey have been compared with 

 authentically-named examples from Rockhampton contained in the Keyserling collection. 

 They appear to me to be specifically identical, and since the occurrence of this species 

 in New Britain is thus substantiated, there can be no reason for doubting the accuracy 

 of Thorell's determination of the Papuan form as macilentus. 



