212 Mr. J. Blackwall on new Species of Spiders. 
tact with some white membrane; their colour is red-brown in- 
termixed with brownish-yellow. 
An adult male and female, and specimens of immature females, 
of Theridion grossum have been transmitted to me by Mrs. Louisa 
E. Collings from the island of Serk, in which locality they were 
captured. 
Genus Larropectvus, Walck. 
Latredectus Erebus. 
Length of the female ~2, of an inch; length of the cephalo- 
thorax +, breadth +; breadth of the abdomen +3;; length of an 
anterior leg =2,; length of a leg of the third pair 42. 
The Latrodectus Erebus of authors was considered by M. Dugés 
to be the adult female of Latrodectus malmignatus (Annales des 
Sciences Naturelles, seconde série, Zoologie, tome vi. p. 169) ; 
and his opinion appears to be well founded. Adult living spe- 
cimens of this species, captured in the island of Porto Santo, in 
1865, and forwarded to me by the Bardo do Castello de Paiva, 
were received in vigorous health, and fed freely on the insects 
with which they were supplied; but they could not be induced 
by any means I could devise to inflict a wound with their short 
and weak fangs on my forearm, or on any other part to which 
they were applied. The failure of this experiment is to be re- 
gretted ; for, had it been brought to a successful issue, it would 
have served to test the accuracy of the belief entertained in 
Italy and in the Canary Islands that the bite of Latrodectus 
malmignatus produces very alarming symptoms, which frequently 
terminate fatally. 
The cocoon of this spider is balloon-shaped, of a very compact 
texture, and of a pale dull-yellowish colour ;_it measures = inch 
in length, 4 inch in diameter in its broadest part, and comprises 
between two and three hundred eggs. The young, on com- 
pleting their first ecdysis, have the abdomen marked with white 
spots. 
Tribe Senoculina. 
Family DyspERiIp&. 
‘Genus Srecrstri, Latr. 
Segestria perfida. 
A female of this species, which had to undergo its final eedysis, 
was taken in Exeter, on a vine growing against a wall having a 
south aspect, in May 1865, by Mr. Edward Parfitt, by whom it 
was presented to me. 
Segestria perfida was included in the ‘ History of the Spiders 
of Great Britain and Ireland,’ part second, page 373, solely on 
the authority of Dr. Leach, who has recorded an instance of its 
