280 REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE ON THE [Feb. 20, 



is the strongest ; the digital joint is of a long oval form ; and the 

 palpal organs are turned outwards ; they are not very prominent 

 or complex, though well developed, and, in structure and appear- 

 ance, very like those of various species of Theridion. The spinners 

 are of ordinary size and form. They are (in the male) about 

 equidistant between the cephalothorax and the hinder extremity of 

 the abdomen ; in the female they are considerably nearer to the 

 cephalothorax. The eminences, so strongly developed on the caput 

 of the male, are only rudimentary in the female. 



Adults of both sexes were found in webs of Epe'ira opuntite, 

 among the branches of prickly pears, at Beirut ; the egg-cocoon 

 very nearly resembles that of Argyrodes epe'ira (Sim.), being of 

 a pear-shape, produced at the larger end into a sort of obtuse neck, 

 and fastened to the webs by a slender stalk, which radiates into two 

 or three lines at its extremity. Although A. epeiree was abundant 

 in the webs of E. opuntice at Tiberias, I could not find it here ; nor 

 did I there detect the present species, which seemed here to be 

 abundant. 



Genus Theridion (Walck.). 



Theridion lutipes, Cambr. Journ. Linn. Soc. x. p. 382, pi. xii. 

 figs. 46-51. 



An adult male and female of this species were found in the Hotel 

 d'Orient at Beirut ; it has since then been described by myself 

 under the above name from examples received from Mr. Nietner 

 from Ceylon. 



Theridion spirifer, Cambr. Zool. 1863, p. 8574. 



Adults of both sexes were found on low-growing plants at Jerusa- 

 lem and on the plains of the Jordan ; the long slender closely coiled 

 spine connected with the palpal organs of this species makes 

 the male a very easily distinguished Spider ; in other respects it is 

 like T. pulchellum (Bl.). It appears to have a wide range ; I found 

 it in Egypt, as well as at Rome, and have also received it from 

 several parts of France ; it was first discovered by myself in the 

 south of England in 1860, and is allied to, if not identical with, 

 Theridion rvfolineatum (Luc. Explor. en Alger, p. 260, pi. 16. 

 fig. 10) ; but, as the female only of that species has been described, 

 it is perhaps not the same, but a closely allied one. 



Theridion denticulatum, Walck. Ins. Apt. t. ii. p. 305. 



Adults of both sexes, between which and our ordinary European 

 forms of the species I could not detect any difference, were found on 

 low-growing plants at Jerusalem. 



Theridion varians, Koch, Die Arachn. xii. p. 134, pi. 428. 

 figs. 1056, 1057. 



An adult male, which I have but little doubt is of this species, 

 was found on a low plant near Jericho. 



