REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE ON NEW BRITISH SPIDERS. 411 
thinly with hairs, as is also the sternum, which is heart-shaped, and with slight depres- 
sions near the articulations of the legs. 
Abdomen oval, tolerably arched above, projects slightly over the base of the "uds 
thorax; it is thickly dotted with hairs, and of a sooty-black satiny appearance; it is also 
thinly furnished with erect black hairs, evenly distributed, and giving the Spider a 
speckled look in spirit of wine. From beneath the fore part a tuft of numerous long 
black bristly hairs curve upwards and slightly back over the upper fore margin; the 
branchial opercula are large and of a dull yellow colour, the space between them dark- 
brown; on the upperside of the abdomen are two divergent curved rows of slight dark 
depressions, three in each row ; the inferior spinners are long, prominent, and cylindrical, 
and their colour is dark-brown. In the female (which otherwise resembles the male), 
the extremity of the inferior spinners has several small prominent nipples, or silk-tubes ; 
these were not observable in the above-described male. 
The female is considerably larger than the male, though there is some variation in the 
size of different individuals of both sexes. An adult female of this species, captured by 
myself on Bloxworth Heath in 1853, is described and figured in Brit. & Ir. Spiders, 
p. 105, pl. vi. fig. 62, as D. lucifugus, Walck., D. melanogaster, Latr., Pythonissa lucifuga, 
Koch. The figure, however, is chiefly taken from Koch, Die Arachn. pl. 194. fig. 469. 
Whether.or not this species is the one alluded to by Dr. Leach is not certain; I think 
that it probably is. A comparison, however, of it, as well as others, both males and 
females, of the same species, since captured in the same locality, with typical specimens 
of Pythonissa lucifuga, C. Koch, has proved it to be very distinct from that species, 
which is a much larger, richer-coloured one, and differs remarkably in the palpi and 
palpal organs of the male, though nearly resembling it in the disposition of the eyes. 
The D. melanogaster, Latr. (D. lucifugus of Walck.), seems to be the same species as the 
Pythonissa lucifuga of C. Koch. Dr. Ludwig Koch, who has examined the specimen 
above described, considers it to be a species new to science, and has requested to be 
allowed to include it in a work he has now in the press, on the family Drassides, under 
the name Pythonissa anglica. 
The group Pythonissa, O. Koch (to which, by the disposition of its eyes and the ex- 
tremely curved and compressed form of the maxillæ, this species belongs), is a very well- 
marked group; but whether their structural peculiarities warrant the formation of a 
genus distinct from Drassus may be questioned. Previously to having made any researches 
in Egypt and Syria I inclined to the opinion that the distinctions between Drassus and 
Pythonissa were only of subgeneric value; but in Egypt and Syria I have discovered a 
great number of new species of this group; and a careful comparison of them with those 
hitherto known convinces me that “ Pythonissa ” wil stand as a good and well-charac- 
terized genus, of which Drassus anglicus is. the only as yet certainly known British 
Species. 'The group seems to have its head quarters in Palestine and Syria, becoming 
rarer towards the west and north. I have received several species also from Bombay. 
Dr. Koch will include in his work on the Drassides all the numerous new species of this 
family discovered by myself in Egypt and Syria, as well as others from Bombay (received 
from Captain Julian Hobson), and from Sydney, Australia (sent me by Mr. H. H. B. 
312 
