682 REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE ON NEW [Nov. 18, 



few years from New Zealand by Captain F.W.Hutton, and of another 

 collection brought to me from the same region of the world, in 1878, 

 by Mr. A S. Atkinson. Those selected for present record are, I 

 helieve, all new to science, excepting two species — Robsonia marina 

 (Hector), remarkable for its submarine habits, and TValckena'era cris- 

 tata, Bl. The occurrence of this latter Spider is very interesting, as 

 being the first species of an extensive European, North-American, and 

 North- Asiatic group as yet found in any part of Australasia. Another 

 Spider now recorded (Episinus antipodianus, sp. n., p, 701) appears 

 to me to indicate the true systematic position of the genus to which it 

 belongs. The genus Episinus, Walck., represented at present by five 

 or six species only (and those mostly European), has hitherto been 

 included in the family Theridiides ; it has always, however, seemed to 

 me to have little real affinity with the typical Spiders of that group, 

 but to be more nearly allied to the Thomisides, as connected with 

 them through the peculiarly Australasian genus Stephanopis, Cambr. 

 An undoubted species of Episinus having now occurred in New 

 Zealand (where Stephanopis is also found), I have ventured to 

 place the former near to the latter, though (owing to a difference in 

 the number of the tarsal claws, and for other reasons) in a distinct 

 family, Episinides. 



Fam. Theraphosides. 

 Genus Arbanitis, L. Koch. 

 Arbanitis huttonii, sp. n. (Plate LII. fig. 1.) 



Adult male, length rather less than A\ lines. 



This Spider is nearly allied to Nemesia gilliesii, Cambr. (Trans. 

 N. Zeal. Instit. x. p. 281, pi. x.), resembling it in general appear- 

 ance, colours, and markings. It may, however, be easily distin- 

 guished by its much smaller size. The cephalothorax is darker- 

 coloured. The legs of the first pair are darker, being of a reddish 

 yellow-brown hue, the tibiae distinctly darker than the rest ; the 

 metatarsi also of the first pair are straight, instead of sinuously 

 curved, and shorter than in A 7 , gilliesii. When looked at in profile 

 the occiput is more gibbous, as also is the posterior margin of the 

 thoracic indentation. The radial joint of the palpus is very large 

 and of a similarly tumid form, but the external edges of the large 

 chasm (or cleft) on the outer side are not nearly so thickly studded 

 with short spines or denticulations ; in fact the denticulee on the upper 

 edge form only an imperfect single row, whereas those on the corre- 

 sponding part in N. gilliesii are smaller, but much more numerous ; 

 on the lower edge they are short, strong, and conical, forming two 

 irregular rows only, and numbering only 18 to 20, whereas in N. gil- 

 liesii they are smaller, but densely grouped, and quite past counting. 

 The digital joint has on the upperside numerous, rather obtuse, 

 straight, not very long spines, but all of equal length, with a few on 

 the fore part of the upperside of the radial joint ; whereas on the 

 radial joint of 'N. gilliesii there are no spines, and but very few, mingled 

 with numerous hairs and some bristles, on the digital joint. The 



