266 Mr. J. Blackwall on a new British Spider. 



brown hue, tinged with red, the lip being the darkest, and the 

 base of the maxillse the palest. The legs of the specimen from 

 which the description was made were mutilated, with the ex- 

 ception of one of the third pair ; but, from the relative length 

 of the uninjured joints, it is evident that the first pair is the 

 longest, then the second, and the third pair is the shortest ; and 

 they are of a pale yellowish hue. The palpi are slender, and 

 resemble the legs in colour. The abdomen is oviform, convex 

 above, and projects over the base of the cephalothorax ; the 

 upper part has a yellowish-white hue ; in the middle of the 

 anterior half there is a soot-coloured cross, and on each side of 

 the posterior half there is a strong longitudinal black band; 

 these bands converge towards the spinners, immediately above 

 which they unite ; the colour of the sides and under part is 

 brownish black, and that of the branchial opercula is yellow; 

 the sexual organs are well developed, of a red-brown hue, and 

 have in connexion with their posterior margin a long, slender, 

 semidiaphanous process, tinged with red-brown at its extremity, 

 which is directed backwards. 



This Linyphia was taken in Wicken Fen, Cambridgeshire, and 

 was received from Mr. R. H. Meade in the summer of 1862. 



Genus Neriene, Blackw. 

 Neriene dentipalpis. 



Theridion dentipalpe, Wider, Museum Senckenb., Band i. p. 248, 

 taf. 17. fig. 1. 



Length of the male -j yth of an inch ; length of the cephalo- 

 thorax j^ • breadth -^ ; breadth of the abdomen ^ ; length of 

 an anterior leg j ; length of a leg of the third pair y^. 



The male of this species is rather smaller than the male of 

 Neriene longipalpis, but it bears a very close resemblance to it 

 in structure and colour. Its most distinctive characters are, the 

 deeply emai'ginated or somewhat crescent-shaped termination of 

 the superior apophysis at the extremity of the radial joint, whose 

 outer limb is the shorter ; and a minute pointed process on the 

 inferior surface of the apophysis at the extremity of the same 

 joint, on the under side. The males of both species have a small 

 pointed conical process at the extremity of the humeral joint of 

 the palpi towards the outer side, and another on the upper part 

 of the exinguinal joint of the anterior pair of legs. 



Neriene dentipalpis may be found during the summer and 

 autumnal months, among the grass of old pastures, in various 

 parts of Denbighshire and Caernarvonshire. 



