438 REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE ON NEW BRITISH SPIDERS. 
Legs moderately long and strong ; relative length 4, 1, 2, 8; colour pale dull yellowish, 
furnished with hairs and slender spines. 
Palpi small, similar in colour to the legs; the cubital joint has a few short fine bristly 
hairs on its upperside forwards; the radial has a good many longer and strong ones, 
especially on its outer side forwards; this joint is. about equal in length to the cubital, 
but is much stronger, and produced slightly in an obtuse form in front; the digital joint 
is not very large; it is hairy, and with a prominent lobe on its outer side ; palpal organs 
prominent and complicated, with corneous spiny processes. These in the specimen 
described from, were forced out of natural position by the inflation (from the action of 
the spirit of wine) of some membranous substance connected with them. 
Falces moderate in length and strength, slightly inclined to the maxillze; these latter 
are strong, somewhat curvilinear on their outer sides, and inclined to the labium, which 
is short and semicircular; these parts, together with the sternum, are of the same colour 
as the cephalothorax. 
Abdomen oval, glossy, very thinly furnished with short hairs, and of a dull black 
colour, spinners pale whitish brown. 
Dr. L. Koch considers this to be a Linyphia, owing to the spines on the legs; but a 
careful examination of the numerous species of the genera Linyphia and Neriene (Eri- 
gone, Westr. ad partem) shows that it is impossible to hold to the armature of the legs 
merely as an unvarying and valid generic character. | 
The specimens above described were captured by myself upon low bushes in a wood 
at Bloxworth, Dorset, in July 1860. Its small size will distinguish it from numerous 
others of the genus; it is very closely allied to Linyphia oblita (described p. 432, ante) in 
general form, size, and also in appearance, but differs in the structure of the palpal 
organs as well as in the length of the falces and in the much darker colour of the 
cephalothorax, which also differs in profile. "The female is rather larger, but resembles 
the male in colour and general characters. 
NERIENE DECORA, n. sp. 
Male adult, length 1 line (or „5 of an inch). 
This species is very closely allied to Veriene subtilis (Camb. Zool. 1863, p. 8584) and N. 
innotabilis (Camb. Zool. 1863, p. 8582), both in size, general structure, and appearance. 
From N. subtilis it may be distinguished by the conical enlargement on the outer side of 
the digital joint of the palpi being far less prominent, as also by the legs wanting the 
black-brown tinge usually visible on the tibiæ and metatarsi, and also on the cephalo- 
thorax of subtilis ; in decora the cephalothorax and legs (except the genual joints, which 
are paler) are of a uniform reddish yellow-brown, and the abdomen is glossy and of à 
black-brown colour, with pale lines and markings visible in spirit of wine; these mark- 
ings in both species form a regular pattern, consisting of a longitudinal narrow band, 
from the outer sides of which pale, lateral, oblique, and slightly curved lines issue. From 
N. innotabilis it differs in the eyes being smaller, and those of the hind central pair being 
further removed from the hind lateral on its side; in innotabilis these are almost close - 2 
together—in fact, but little further from each other than are those of the lateral pairs; - 
en. 
