REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE ON NEW BRITISH SPIDERS. 421 
and they are furnished with hairs, some of which are erect and others sessile ; of each 
kind there is a conspicuous row on the uppersides of the femora of the first two pairs; 
beneath the femora (chiefly of the two first pairs) are some deep red-brown granulations 
similar to those on the cephalothorax. 
Palpi long and strong. Colour yellow tinged with sooty; digital joint darkest; they are 
very sparingly furnished with hairs, mostly so on the digital joint; humeral joint curved 
and gradually enlarging towards the extremity; cubital curved, prominent above and 
strongly clavate at the extremity; radial shorter than the cubital, spreading out at the 
extremity, and fringed near the margin with longish hairs; digital joint large, rounded 
. behind, long, pointed at the extremity, on the inner side of which is a prominent and 
conspicuous projection giving it a bifid appearance; palpal organs well developed, pro- 
minent and complicated, consisting of several conspicuous corneous projections and spines 
of irregular form. 
Falces considerably shorter than the clypeus and not very strong, perpendicular, but 
rather retiring beneath the clypeus; similar in colour and granulous punctures to the 
cephalothorax. 
Mazille moderately long and strong, obliquely truncate at their extremity on the outer 
side, much inclined towards and nearly meeting over the labium, which is short and 
semicircular; these parts are similar in colour to the falces, the labium being rather 
darker. 
Sternum large, heart-shaped, moderately convex, similar in colour to the cephalo- 
thorax, and thiekly studded with similar granulous punctures, and a few shortish hairs. 
Abdomen short, oval, convex, nearly globular and glossy; it does not project much 
over the base of the cephalothorax, and is furnished sparingly with short dark hairs. Its 
colour is pale brownish-yellow ; a long irregular patch on the sides, and two large blotches 
on either side of the fore extremity, a space beneath the fore extremity of the upper part, 
and the extremity towards the spinners are of a dark blackish-mahogany colour; the 
upperside is divided longitudinally by a pale band, and irregularly marked with whitish 
markings, some spots of which are also visible on other portions of the upperside, espe- 
cially between and outside the dark blotches at the fore extremity, and in a line beneath 
the lateral dark patches. Four conspicuous round depressions of a dark yellow-brown 
colour, form nearly a square occupying the centre of the upperside; the two hinder de- 
pressions are larger and rather further apart than the two fore ones; spiracular plates 
large, convex, shining; underside dark black-mahogany-coloured; a transverse yellow 
bar, above which are two oblique ones, forming an open angle directed forwards, mark 
the position of the sexual organs. Spinners very short, and of a pale dull yellow colour: 
they are situated on a pale patch surrounded by a margin of deep mahogany-colour. 
Adult females of this rare and pretty spider have been taken at intervals on Bloxworth 
Heath, at the roots of grass and heath, from the year 1860; but the closest search has 
failed to produce more than the single male above described. It is allied elosely both to 
Theridion guttatum (Walck.) and Theridion quadripunctatum (Walck.), but is easily di- 
stinguished from both by size, colour, and the peculiar granulated punctures on the cephalo- 
thorax &e., and also by the structure of the palpi and palpal organs. 
