8588 Arachnida. 



the former one. On the outer side of the joint, also issuing 

 from its base, is a third projection, shorter and stouter than the 

 last, and rather more obtuse at its extremity. These two last 

 projections are strongly edged with black. Digital joint oval, 

 with a large lobe on the outer side. Palpal organs well-deve- 

 loped and rather complicated : at their extremity is a fine, 

 black, filiform, coiled spine, in contact with which is a mass of 

 . semitransparent membranous substance. 

 Abdomen short, oval and convex, thinly clothed with hairs, glossy 

 and of a yellowish red-brown colour. 



This spider was captured by myself among low herbage at Blox- 

 worth, in the summer of 1861, and was at first mistaken for Neriene 

 rubens, to which it bears close resemblance, both in general form and 

 appearance, and also in the form of the palpi. It may, however, be 

 immediately distinguished from that species by the ocular eminence 

 being divided into two^ segments by the longitudinal cleft above de- 

 scribed, and which gives its eyes a totally different relative position 

 from that of N. rubens. 



Neriene bictjspis. 



Male, adult. Length 1 -twenty-first of an inch. Length of cepha- 

 lothorax 1-forty-second. Breadth 1 -forty-first. Relative length 

 of legs, 4—1, 2, 3. 



Cephalothorax broad and flat, almost circular in shape, with the 

 front part squared off. Towards each frontal corner is a mode- 

 rately high tubercular eminence, surmounted by a short, strong, 

 black cusp or spine, slightly curved, and its point directed 

 inwards and forwards. Colour pale dull semitransparent 

 greenish. Margins black, and a black line runs longitudinally 

 through the centre, and several sooty lines converge towards a 

 central point in the medial line. 



Eyes in four pairs, nearly equal in size ; one pair (the eyes of 

 which are widest apart) between the tubercular eminences ; the 

 eyes of another pair, seated on a large black spot below each 

 eminence near the frontal margin, are near together but not 

 contiguous ; the lateral pairs are seated very obliquely at the 

 bases of the eminences in front. 



Legs moderately long and strong, furnished with hairs. Colour 

 pale semitransparent yellow-brown, the central part of each 

 joint being strongly tinged with reddish orange-brown. 



Falces strong and straight, and of a dull yellowish colour. 



