new and rare British Spiders. 195 



small, while that between each and the fore-lateral on its side 

 is a little greater. 



The legs are short, moderately strong, 1, 2, 4, 3; but the 

 difference between 2 and 4 is very slight. Their colour is 

 yellow, the tibiae tinged with brownish orange, and much 

 stronger than the metatarsi ; the extreme point of the meta- 

 tarsi and the fore half of the tarsi are black. Their armature 

 consists of hairs and a very few prominent and rather strong 

 bristles only, none of the latter, however, being sufficiently 

 strong to be called a spine ; the tarsal claws are rather weak. 



The -palpi are slender, short, of a yellowish colour, tipped 

 with blackish, and furnished with coarse bristles. 



The falces are moderate in length and strength, vertical, 

 and similar to the legs in colour, the denticulations being very 

 minute. 



The maxillce are of a dull yellowish hue ; and the labium 

 is rather darker-coloured. 



The sternum is of a somewhat subtriangular form, yellow 

 along the middle, with a broad dark yellowish-brown border. 



The abdomen is very large, globular, and projects greatly 

 over the base of the cephalothorax. It is very thinly clothed 

 with hairs, and is of a shining silvery-white colour, with a 

 golden tinge on the middle of the upperside, and clouded in 

 parts with a pale brownish-claret hue, forming a definite 

 though not a very strongly marked pattern ; and the whole 

 surface is covered with an irregular network of fine dusky 

 lines. On the fore part of the upperside is a ring formed by 

 a band of a pale claret colour ; the enclosed space bears a 

 blackish cruciform marking ; this is followed by a somewhat 

 dagger-shaped marking of a similar hue, which runs into a 

 large, quadrate, dull claret-coloured area; this area is rather 

 the palest along the middle and at the fore extremity, but 

 reaches quite to the spinners, on each side a little above which 

 there is a rather large silvery blotch, with another, smaller one 

 still nearer to the spinners. The sides are marked with a 

 strong oblique claret-coloured stripe or band. The under- 

 side is reddish brown. The spinners are short and compact, 

 the four outer ones equal in length. The genital aperture is 

 rather large, of a transverse somewhat oval form, and placed 

 behind a strong shining black prominence. 



A single example of this very pretty and distinct little 

 spider was found among low herbage on the edge of a watery 

 swamp near Bloxworth, on the 30th of June, 1879. It is 

 closely allied to Theridion gemmosum, L. K. ; but on compari- 

 son with types of that species received from Dr. L. Koch, I 

 think it is of a distinct species. The colouring and pattern 



