264 Mr. J. Blackwall on newly discovered Spiders. 



of the acid, when they are easily examined. I have not been 

 able to see any tentacles projected through the spines, as in 

 Acanthometra, nor do the spines extend further inwards than 

 the lorica. The whole organism very much resembles in its 

 capsular elements those of the seed-like body of Spongilla 

 Meyeni. I saw no crude food in the interior ; but the nature of 

 the nutriment, as well as other points in the history of this 

 Rhizopod, may be elucidated by further examination. 



XXV. — Notice of a Drassus and Linyphia new to Science, and a 

 Neriene hitherto unrecorded as British. By John Blackwall, 

 P.L.S. 



Tribe Octonoculina. 



Family Drassid^. 



Genus Drassus, AValck. 



Drassus gracilipes. 



Length of an immature male ^^ths of an inch ; length of the 

 cephalothorax -j^y ; breadth ~ ; breadth of the abdomen Jg- ; 

 length of a posterior leg ^ ; length of a leg of the third pair j. 



The cephalothorax is convex, compressed before, rounded in 

 front and on the sides, with slight furrows on the latter con- 

 verging towards a narrow indentation in the medial line ; it is 

 soot-coloured, sparingly clothed with white hairs, and has a 

 narrow fringe of hairs of the same hue on the lateral margins. 

 The falces are conical and vertical; the maxillse are convex at 

 the base, and somewhat inclined towards the lip, which is nearly 

 quadrate, and slightly hollowed at the apex. These parts are of 

 a brown hue, the inner side of the maxillse and the extremity of 

 the lip and falces being much the palest. The sternum is 

 heart-shaped, with small eminences on the sides opposite to the 

 legs, and is soot-coloured, but rather browner than the cephalo- 

 thorax. The eyes are disposed on the anterior part of the 

 cephalothorax in two transverse, slightly curved, nearly parallel 

 rows, the anterior row being rather the more curved ; the lateral 

 eyes are the largest, and the intermediate ones of the anterior 

 row are the smallest and dai*kest of the eight. The legs are 

 long, slender, and provided with hairs and spines, two parallel 

 rows of long sessile spines occurring on the inferior surface of 

 the tibise and metatarsi of the first and second pairs ; the fourth 

 pair is the longest, then the first, and the third pair is the 

 shortest ; each tarsus is terminated by two small curved claws, 

 below which there is a minute scopula ; the anterior legs have a 

 black hue, with the exception of the base of the genual joint, 



