AND A NEW aENUS OP ARANEIDEA. 399 



the absence of a sternal plate, the legs being simply articulated 

 to the face of tlie lower side of the cephalothorax, which forms 

 the sternal surface ; further observations on this unique structure 

 are given below, in the details of generic and specific characters ; 

 the form of the ceplialotliorax is also different from that of any 

 otlier species known to me. 



llespectiug the position of these four-eyed spiders in a syste- 

 matic arrangement of the Araneidea, I am inclined to think 

 that their " family ' ' affinities are to be found with the genera 

 Mithras and Tllohorus ; the number of eyes (taking that as a 

 simple generic character), together with the sternal peculiarity 

 above noticed, and the form of the maiillo3 and labium appear to 

 constitute a genus among the best-characterized of the older 

 Araneidea ; for this genus I propose the name Miagrammopes ; 

 and the group formed by it in couj unction with the two genera 

 above mentioned would have strong affinity with the family 

 Epeirides. Nothing is yet Imown of the habits or of the 

 kind of w^eb spun by these spiders ; but I should confidently 

 expect that they will be found to spin a geometric web, resembling 

 in this respect spiders of the genera with which I have provision- 

 ally allied them, Mithras and Uloborus ; like these, they possess 

 the peculiarity (possessed however also by many other spiders) 

 of a " calamistrum " or combing-apparatus, upon the metatarsi of 

 the fourth pair of legs, as well as the supernumerary spinner 

 (or pair of spinners) always found where the calamistrum exists ; 

 but future observation must show in what way the calamistrum is 

 used in the construction of their snares. Its use in some spiders 

 of the genus Cinijlo has been ably detailed by Mr. Blackwall, 

 to whom the first discovery of the calamistrum and its economic 

 importance is due (Linn. Trans, vol. xvi. pp. 473-4, tab. xxi. 

 figs. 2, 3, and vol. xviii. p. 224) ; but no observations have yet, as 

 far as I know, been made upon this point in respect to Mithras 

 and Uloborus. Two species of the latter, Uloborus Walchiaerius 

 (Koch) and Uloborus plumipes (Koch), came under my notice 

 during a tour in Syria and Palestine in 1865 ; but the spider was 

 always stretched motionless in or near the centre of its web, and 

 was difficult to be distinguished as it lay among the very similarly 

 coloured debris of insects, enveloped in grey flocculus. The general 

 use of the calamistrum seems to be to card or tease a peculiar 

 kind of silk drawn or emitted from the supernumerary spinners ; 

 the flocculus thus formed being of a tenacious character, is pro- 



