REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE ON BRITISH SPIDERS. 447 
prominent, and the clypeus impressed below the eyes, but not very high, being less in 
height than the length of the space occupied by the four central eyes. 
The eyes do not differ greatly in size, those of the fore central pair being the smallest. 
The cubital and radial joints of the palpi are short, being about equal in length; the 
latter is the strongest, and very slightly produced at its fore extremity on the upperside. 
The cubital joint has a single, curved, prominent black bristle issuing from its fore side; 
the digital joint is of moderate size; and the palpal organs are highly developed, pro- 
minent, and tolerably complex. 
This species may be distinguished from Linyphia longipes (Cambr.) by its smaller size 
and by the absence of a coiled filiform spine at the extremity of the palpal organs. From 
L. circumspecta (Bl.) it may be distinguished both by the absence of the spine and by its 
not having any pattern on its shining black abdomen. It is closely allied also to L. in- 
conspicua (Cambr.), but may be distinguished by the colour and markings on the cephalo- 
thorax, and by the colour of the abdomen. 
The legs are moderately long, of a dull brownish yellow colour; and their relative 
length appeared to be 1, 4, 2, 3. 
A single adult male of this species was found by myself at Ploxworth i in the summer 
of 1870. 
I have placed this spider, doubtfully, i in the genus Linyphia, in accordance with the 
rule laid down by Mr. Westring (Ar. Suec. p. 91) relative to the possession of distinct 
spines on the legs; but I can find really no other good generic distinction from its very 
near ally Neriene gracilis— Erigone rurestris (Westr.). With regard to the possession 
of spines, it seems to me almost impossible to decide what is a very slender spine and 
what is a strong bristle; in fact the gradations from a simple hair through bristles of 
various strengths to decided spines are so numerous and so gradual that, apart from some 
other strong structural character, the absence or presence of so-called distinct spines on 
the legs can hardly be considered of generic value. 
Genus NERIENE (BL) 
NERIENE LONGIPALPIS, (Pl. XXXIV. nos. 23, 24.) 
? Linyphia longipalpis, Sund. Vet.-Akad. Handl. f. 1829, p. 212; ibid. 1832, p. 259 (excl. var. 8). 
? Erigone longipalpis, Westr. Ar. Suec. p. 197. 
This spider, with which possibly three other species (Neriene dentipalpis, Westr., N. 
atra, BL, and N. promiscua, Cambr., n. sp.) have been included under the same name in 
English collections, seems to be, as a British species, rarer than either of them, and (as 
distinguished from them) has not yet been recorded among our indigenous spiders ; it 
is generally larger than those three species; the spur beneath the fore extremity of the 
cubital joint of the male palpus is longer and stronger; the radial joint is entirely without 
any spine beneath, and its upper extremity is produced in a pointed and rather promi- 
nent form, and nearly to the same extent as the production of the lower extremity. 
Besides the difference in the form of the radial joint, there are in all four of these species 
differences in the structure of the palpal organs; but these latter are not at first sight 
