1874.] NEW SPECIES OF ERIGONE. 433 



them ; each fore central eye forms, with the fore lateral and hind 

 central on its side, as nearly as possible an equilateral triangle. 



The legs are rather long and slender ; their relative length is 

 4, 1, 2, 3; they are of a clear light orange-yellow colour, furnished 

 with hairs and a few slender erect bristles ; and each tarsus ends with 

 three small black claws. 



The palpi are short, tolerably strong, and similar in colour to the 

 legs, except the radial and digital joints, which have a dark greenish 

 olive hue ; the cuhital joint is long, nearly as long as the humeral 

 joint, and enlarges gradually to its fore extremity. The radial joint 

 is exceedingly short ; it is a little prominent behind, and has a group 

 of small hairs on its outer side ; its fore part is produced into a long 

 curved apophysis, having its sharp somewhat thorn-like and rather 

 suddenly-formed point directed outwards and rather upwards. The 

 digital joint is small and of a roundish oval form. The palpal organs 

 are highly developed, prominent, and rather complex ; from their 

 extremity on the outer side there curves out a long, slender, tapering, 

 sharp-pointed prominent nearly straight spine : this spine is very 

 conspicuous and characteristic from its straightness. 



The falces are moderate in length and strength, of a yellow-brown 

 colour, and present no remarkable feature. 



The maxillae are strong, the basal portion exceedingly so ; they 

 are curved and inclined to the labium, which is short and semicir- 

 cular. The maxillae are rather paler in colour than the falces, and 

 whitish at their extremities ; the labium is darkest, with a pale apex. 



The sternum is large, heart-shaped, convex, and very glossy, of a 

 dark yellow-brown colour suffused with blackish. 



The abdomen is oval, tolerably convex above, and projects a little 

 over the base of the cephalothorax ; it is of a dull blackish colour, 

 marked above with some lines and spots of a clear yellow-brown 

 (probably not very visible except when in spirit of wine), and clothed 

 pretty thickly with coarse hairs. 



An adult female which accompanied the male above described 

 was rather larger and darker-coloured ; the occiput was simply 

 rounded ; the height of the clypeus much less, and the eyes of the 

 hinder row equidistant from each other. These differences are fre- 

 quently observable in females of those Erigonce whose males have 

 gibbosities and eminences on the caput ; and it is most probable that 

 the two Spiders here described are, as their captor has supposed, the 

 sexes of the same species ; still it is quite possible they may not be 

 so. The genital aperture is small, and of a very simple form. 



These two Spiders, of which the male is an exceedingly interesting 

 and distinct form, allied to E. apicata (Bl.), E. retusa (Westr.), and 

 still more nearly to E. excisa (Cambr.), were received from Mr. 

 Emerton, of Boston, Massachusetts, by whom they were captured in 

 that neighbourhood (Milton, Mass.) among moss, in October 1873. 



Erigone x.mt\, sp. n. (Plate LV. fig. 4.) 



Adult male, length ^ line. 



The cephalothorax is of an ordinary short-oval form : the caput has 



