REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE ON BRITISH SPIDERS. 451 
NERIENE RETUSA. 
Erigone retusa, Westr. Ar. Suec. p. 253. 
Neriene elevata, Cambr. Zoologist for 1862,.p. 7966. 
Tmeticus foveolatus, Menge, Preuss. Spin. p. 186, pl. 35. fig. 86. 
A slight but abrupt elevation behind the eyes will easily distinguish this species from 
Neriene fusca (Bl) and N. agrestis (B1.), to which it is closely allied, both in form, | 
general colour, and in the structure of the male palpi. "This spider is found, but not 
commonly, at Bloxworth; I have also received it from Ireland, through Mr. R. H. 
Meade, and have found it among the Styrian Alps in Austria. Between N. fusca and 
JN. agrestis there may possibly be some good distinguishing characters; but various 
examples kindly examined for me in past years by Mr. Blackwall, and relegated by him 
to one or the other of these species, are undoubtedly all identical. In the examination of 
closely allied spiders Mr. Blackwall has generally laboured under the great disadvantage 
of not having a named collection to assist him in their determination; and this may 
account also for my being unable to find any difference between his Neriene gracilis and 
Neriene flavipes, all the examples of which two species that he has kindly examined for 
me are certainly identical, and decided by both Dr. L. Koch and Dr. Thorell to be the 
-Erigone rurestris (Westr.). The same observations will also apply to Linyphia tenuis 
(BL) and Linyphia terricola (BL.). 
NERIENE BicusPis. (Pl. XXXV. no. 26.) 
Neriene bicuspis, Cambr. Zoologist for 1863, p. 8588. 
This remarkable species is closely allied to, but, I think, distinct from, the Theridion 
sulcifrons (Reuss, Wider), which last is probably identical with Platyopis sulcifrons, 
Menge. The broad and nearly round cephalothorax, furnished at each of its two fore 
corners with a short, black, somewhat conical cusp, distinguishes it at first sight from all 
other known British species of Neriene. It is abundant in some seasons in early spring 
on iron railings at Bloxworth Rectory. 
NERIENE (DREPANODUS, Menge) ALBIPUNCTATA, n. sp. (Pl. XXXIV. no. 15.) 
There appears to be no good reason for the formation of a new genus to receive the 
spider upon which the genus Drepanodus has been formed by Herr Menge; it is very 
closely allied to Neriene livida (Bl.) = Erigone pinguis (W estr.), the only notable differences 
being in the development of the falces and the armature of the tibiæ and metatarsi of 
the first two pairs of legs of the male. The female is unknown at present; but whenever 
it may be discovered, I apprehend that, in all probability, these characters, so marked in 
the male, will be found not to exist (or, at all events, to exist in only a very small degree?) 
in the female. 
The species now to be described (N. albipunctata) is certainly, I think, distinct from 
the D. obscurus of Menge, though closely allied. It has a similar development of the 
falces and armature of the legs; and the abdomen, which projects considerably over the 
base of the cephalothorax, has a sort of corneous cavity beneath its fore extremity, into 
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