REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE ON NEW BRITISH SPIDERS. : 417 
the lateral pairs are contiguous and seated obliquely on a small tubercle ; the four central 
eyes nearly form a square, the distance from front to back being slightly less than from 
side to side, and the front side very slightly shorter than the hinder one; those of the 
fore central pair are dark-coloured; all the other six have a bright pearly lustre. 
Legs long and moderately strong, the first pair much the longest; the second and 
fourth pairs are nearly equal, the fourth slightly the longest (?), and the third pair is the 
shortest; relative length 1, 4, 2,3. They are well furnished with hairs, and in place 
of spines the tibial and genual joints have a few erect hairs or bristles; ; general colour 
the same as that of the cephalothorax, though slightly deeper in some specimens. 
Palpi moderately long and strong, of the same colour as the legs; cubital and radial 
joints short; the latter is produced at its extremity on the outer side, where it is fur- 
nished with six, or more, black longish bristly hairs in a row round the margin; one, or 
more, longish bristly hairs also spring from the upperside of the cubital joint; digital 
joint hairy, oval, and of moderate size; palpal organs prominent and not very com- 
plicated ; they have several irregular corneous projections at their extremity. 
Falces long, greatly divergent, especially at their extremities, towards which there is a 
strong bluntish tooth-like process on the inner side of each falx ; the fangs are very long 
and strong. 
Maxille long, strong, nearly straight, considerably inclining over the labium, and 
obliquely truncated laterally on their outer extremities. 
Labium triangular, rounded at the apex. 
Sternum broad, heart-shaped, and, with the falces, maxillæ, and labium, rather paler- 
coloured than the legs, and sparingly furnished with a few blackish hairs. 
Abdomen oval, moderately convex, and projecting over the base of the cephalothorax ; 
very thinly elothed with longish hairs, and of a pale yellowish colour, thickly freckled 
- with small white spots, or blotches, on the upperside; on each side of the median line is 
à row of black spots, or blotches, often diffused and confluent, and then forming an irre- 
gularly dentated central band between them, narrower at each end than in the middle; 
the sides have a few black spots, or irregular blotches; these are sometimes a mere longi- 
tudinal suffusion of colour, and sometimes entirely obsolete; similarly the underside has 
a large squarish black blotch towards the spinners, round which are also a few black 
spots, sometimes confluent and sometimes obsolete. 
The female resembles the male, except in the caput not being quite so elevated, in the ab- 
domen being of a globular form, and in the first pair of legs being proportionally shorter. 
The spots on the sides of the abdomen in some female specimens form two or three oblique 
lines, and the falces in that sex are also straight and shorter than in the male. 
This species is nearly allied to Theridion lineatum, but is very much smaller, and is 
apparently never coloured with bright carmine on the abdomen as is the case occasionally in 
that species; the legs are also proportionally longer and stronger; and whereas the falces 
in the male of Th. lineatum vary very considerably in their length in different specimens, 
those of the present species vary, if at all, very slightly. The pattern on the abdomen is 
liable to considerable variation by the confluence or suffusion of the black spots, or by 
their being sometimes more or less obsolete. Both sexes were discovered by myself in 
VOL. XXVIL. —— 9 K 
