and rare British Spiders. 251 



A single adult male of this, the smallest spider except one 

 (E. diceros, Cambr.) that has yet come before me, was found 

 by myself among decayed wood at Bloxworth Rectory in May 

 1874. Its near affinity to E. prwcox, Cambr., has been 

 mentioned above. It is allied also very closely to E. alexan- 

 drina, Cambr., a small spider found in a marsh near Alexan- 

 dria, Egypt. This latter, however, is a larger species, and 

 differs from the present in the relative position of the eyes, 

 the rather greater gibbosity of the occipital region, as well as 

 slightly in the form of the palpi and structure of the palpal 

 organs. 



Genus Linyphia, Fabr. 



Linyphia expuncta. 

 Linyphia lepida, Cambr. Linn. Soc. Journ. xi. p. 539, pi. xv. fig. 7. 



In conferring the specific name of lepida on this spider, it 

 escaped my memory at the moment that Mr. Blackwall had 

 previously (Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist., Dec. 1866) given it to 

 a spider of the same genus found in the south-east region of 

 Equatorial Africa. I therefore now give the name expuncta 

 to the pretty little Scotch Linyphia received from Mr. J. W. 

 H. Traill, and at first described, I. c, under the name of 

 lepida. 



Linyphia aeria, sp. n. PI. VIII. fig. 8. 



Adult male, length rather less than 1 line. 



The cephalothorax of this small spider is of the ordinary 

 oval form when looked at from above ; but when seen in 

 profile the thoracic portion is slightly higher than the caput, 

 the occipital region of which is a little gibbous, and the ocular 

 area sloping downwards. The colour of the cephalothorax is 

 yellow-brown, the margins and normal converging grooves 

 and indentations suffused with dusky brown ; and along the 

 central longitudinal line are a few fine bristles of different 

 lengths directed forwards. The clypeus is impressed below 

 the eyes, prominent at its margin, and its height is less than 

 half that of the facial space. 



The eyes are of tolerable size, and, relatively, do not differ 

 much ; they are placed in the ordinary position on black 

 tuberculate spots in two curved rows, forming a transverse 

 oval figure ; those of the hinder row, which is the longest and 

 most curved, are equidistant from each other, the interval 

 being less than an eye's diameter ; and each of those of the 

 hind central pair is a diameter's distance from the fore central 



