new and rare British Spiders. 201 



pairs are contiguous to each other, and seated on tubercles, 

 being thus but very slightly oblique in their position. The 

 eyes of the posterior row are of equal size, and separated by 

 equal intervals of no more than a diameter's extent. Those 

 of the fore-central pair are nearer together, but not quite con- 

 tiguous to each other ; the fore-laterals are the largest of the 

 eight, and are distant from the fore-centrals by about the 

 diameter of the latter. The four central eyes form a narrow 

 trapezoid, the anterior side of which is shorter than the pos- 

 terior. 



The legs are rather short, tolerably strong, their relative 

 length 4, 1, 2, 3 ; they are of a clear yellow colour, furnished 

 with coarse hairs and a fair number of short, erect, fine bristles, 

 mostly on the tibiae and metatarsi of the first two pairs ; a 

 single stronger bristle also springs from the anterior extremity 

 of the genual joints. 



The jjatyri are similar in colour and armature to the legs. 



The Juices are vertical, moderate in length and strength, 

 divergent at their extremities, and similar in colour to the 

 cephalothorax. 



The maxillce are strong and a little inclined to the labium, 

 which is broad but short ; these parts are similar in colour to 

 the falces. 



The sternum is heart-shaped and of a deeper hue. 



The abdomen is of moderate size, and of a broadish oviform 

 shape ; it is of a dull blackish colour, palest underneath, and 

 pretty thickly clothed with coarse hairs. The process con- 

 nected with the genital aperture is rather prominent, of a 

 red-brown hue, and of characteristic form. A little way in 

 front of the spinners, beneath the extremity of the abdomen, 

 is a very distinct transverse slit, or narrow opening, of consi- 

 derable length ; this, without a doubt, is the orifice of an 

 additional spiracular organ, and forms a very strong specific 

 character in the present spicier, even if it be of no greater 

 systematic significance. 



A single example was found at the roots of herbage on the 

 edge of the low cliffs bordering the Smallmouth Sands, near 

 Weymouth, on the occasion of the meeting of the Dorset 

 Natural-History and Antiquarian Field Club, on the 2nd 

 July, 1879. 



Neriene mystica, sp. n. (PL XII. fig. 5.) 



Adult female, length 1 line. 



The cephalothorax is of an elongate-oval form somewhat 

 drawn out at the fore extremity, the clypcus projecting, and 

 equal in height to half that of the facial space. It is of a 



