DRASSIDAE 39; 



Drassus contains twelve British species. The commonest is 

 D. lapidosus, a large dull brown spider, more than half an inch 

 in length, which lives beneath stones in all parts of the country. 

 At least a hundred species of this genus have been described. 



Ifelanophora ( = Prosthesima) -^ includes a large number of 

 species. They are dark-coloured active spiders, many of them 

 jet black and glossy. Seven are recorded from the British Isles, 

 the average size being about a quarter of an inch. They are 

 found under stones. A closely allied genus is Phaeocedus, whose 

 single species {P. braccatus) has occurred, though very rarely, in 

 the south of England. Gnaphosa has fifty-five species, of which 

 twenty-eight are European, and four are British. 



(ii.) The Clubioninae have the anterior spinnerets closer 

 together, and the eyes more extended across the caput than in the 

 foregoing sub-family. Nearly thirty genera have been established, 

 of which three claim special attention. Glubiona includes more 

 than 100 species, chieliy inhabiting temperate regions. Fifteen 

 are included in the British list. They are mostly unicolorous, 

 and yellow or brown in colour, but a few (C. corticalis, G. com23ta, 

 etc.) have a distinct pattern on the abdomen. Gheiracanthmm is 

 a large and widely spread genus, counting three English species. 

 There are more than a hundred species of the genus Anyphaena, 

 of which one only {A. accentuata) occurs in this country, where 

 it is common upon bushes and trees in the south. 



(iii.) The Lioceaninae include about twenty-four genera, of 

 which Zora, Ziocranum, Agroeca, and Micariosoma are sparingly 

 represented in this country. 



(iv.) The MiCAEllNAE are a remarkable group of Spiders con- 

 taining numerous ant-like mimetic forms. Two species of Micaria 

 alone are English, but that genus is abundantly represented on the 

 Continent, where the species mount up to forty. They are mostly 

 small, dark, shining spiders, which, though not particularly ant- 

 like in form, recall those insects both by their appearance and 

 movements. Some of the exotic genera, and particularly the 

 South American genus Myrmecium, possess remarkable instances 

 of mimetic resemblance to ants. Micaria pulicaria is a very 



1 L. Koch replaced i/ete»07)/i09-a hj Prosthesima, believing the former to be pre- 

 occupied, but according to Simon {Hist. Nat. des Ar. i. p. 341) C. Koch's use 

 ot Melanophora for an Arachnid was antecedent (1833) to Meigen's employment of 

 it for Diptera, 1838. 



