DESCRIPTION OF GENERA AND SPECIES. 



FEMALE: Total length, 25 mm.; abdomen, 17 mm. long, 7 mm. wide; cephalothorax, 

 8 mm. long, mm. wide. Koch's Nephila clavipes (plate No. 30) appears to me to be iden- 

 tical with a species found along our Gulf Coast, of which I have received several examples 

 from Mr. C. H. Townsend, collected at Swan's Island, Carribean Sea. There is, however, 

 some discrepancy between the description and illustration of Koch, as Walckenaer has 

 pointed out, Ins. Apt., II., page 99. No. 354, Koch describes as N. fusciculuta DE GEER, and 

 with head horns, which are certainly not represented in the figure marked for that species 

 on the plate. On the contrary, No. 355 is drawn with head horns (apparently), although 

 " N. clavipes," which is the title of that number, is described in the text as without such 

 appendages. A specimen in Dr. Marx's collection from Key West, Florida, resembles Koch's 

 Fig. 355, Plate CLIL, and corresponds well to the description placed under " Fig. 354," 

 pages 30, 31. Has there been here a transposition of the figures? In any case a new name 

 must be given for the species numbered 354 (Plate CLIL), since both the names N. clavipes 

 and N. fasciculata are appropriated. The latter, indeed, may be a synonym of the former, 

 but this is in doubt, and, in the absence of material for study, it is not possible for the writer, 

 at least, to determine that point. The species has a close general likeness to N. Wilder!, 

 from which it may commonly be distinguished by the presence of brushes or plumes on 

 the tibiae alone, instead of on both tibiae and femora, as in Wilderi ; by the absence of the 

 strong sternal cone directly opposite the labium, which marks Wilderi ; and by the venter 

 having a rather broader band of yellow instead of the brighter marginal triclinium on the 

 venter of Wilderi. 



CEPHALOTHORAX : A rounded oval, sharply truncated at the base, the fosse deep, the 

 corselet grooves and cephalic suture strongly marked. The dot-sum is somewhat flattened 

 at the top, covered with silvery white pubescence, the ground color orange brown, with a 

 yellow band at the margin and a broadened triangular patch upon the caput. The sternum 

 is shield shaped, pointed at the apex, almost as wide as long, slightly elevated in the 

 centre, and with rounded tubercles before the first coxae and the lip; scarcely marked 

 tubercles or lumpy elevations are opposite the second and third coxae ; color yellow, with 

 streakings of brown; covered with pubescence. The labium is long, thickened from the 

 base to the middle, and the tip a rounded triangle ; maxillae longer than wide, pyrtform, 

 and, like the lip, yellow in color, and covered, but not excessively, with bristles and hairs. 



LEGS: 1,2,4,3; not stout, but comparatively thin for such a large species. The spinal 

 armature is scant and rather feeble, the terminal joints particularly, and heavily coated 

 with yellow bristles. The apices of the tibial joints have clusters of bristles, forming a 

 faintly developed brush, but not so prominent as in N. plumipes. The color is yellow, 

 with orange tips at the joints, and the feet and metatarsi black or blackish brown. Palps 

 colored as the legs; mandibles conical; a slight conical projection marks the outer edge of 

 the base near the reticulation. Color dark brown and blackish. 



EYES: Ocular quad on a well rounded prominence, wider behind than in front, and 

 longest at the sides. The eyes do not greatly differ in size, but MF are the larger; are 

 separated by about two diameters ; MR by 3 to 3.5 diameters ; side eyes on well elevated 

 tubercles, almost equal in size, SF slightly the larger, and not differing much from the size 

 of MF. The distance between MF and SF is about 1.5 to 1.3 the alignment of MF; the 

 clypeus is high, about the alignment of MF. The front row is recurved, the rear row 

 procurved. 



ABDOMEN: Cylindrical, somewhat thicker at the base, which overhangs the cephalo- 

 thorax, than at the apex, which slightly overhangs the spinnerets; color yellow; skin 

 reticulated; dorsum thickly covered with whitish spots, the largest symmetrically arranged 

 on either side of the median line; the others scattered over the dorsal field, which is 

 limited at the margin on the sides by an interrupted line and on the base by a band of 

 like color. A yellow band broken in the middle passes around the anterior part of 

 the base; the sides are colored as the dorsum, and similarly marked by whitish spots. 

 These and other portions of the abdomen are provided with silvery bristles, whose metallic 

 lustre adds much to the beauty of the species. The venter is a yellow band with longitu- 

 dinal stripes of lighter color, and whitish bands, with silvery pubescence at the sides, and 



