Emerton.] 68 [January 3. 



were exhibited, and the thanks of the Society voted to the 

 several donors. 



General Meeting. January 3, 1877. 



The President, Mr. T. T. Bonve, in the chair. Sixteen 

 persons present. 



The following papers were read : — 



A Comparison of the Spiders of Europe and North America. 

 By J. H. Emerton. 



The material for a comparison of the spiders of Europe and 

 America is yet small. In the central and western part of Europe 

 probably all the common species are known, though the exact range 

 of very few has been determined. In America, collections have been 

 made at various places along the Atlantic coast, in Georgia, Ala- 

 bama, Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois, Utah and California, the most com- 

 plete local collections in the northern states containing about three 

 hundred species, or nearly the number known in England and Swe- 

 den at the time of publication of Blackwall's Spiders of Great Brit- 

 ain and Westring's Aranece Suecicce. The larger and commoner 

 species of the two countries are therefore probably known and may 

 be fairly compared. The genus Argiope has in Europe A. bruen- 

 nicldi found only in the southern portion, in North America two spe- 

 cies described by Hentz under the names Epeira riparia and E. 

 fasciata, which are both abundant as far north as Massachusetts. 

 The latter was supposed by Hentz to be identical with A. bruen- 

 nichii, and indeed resembles it much in color and markings, but 

 differs in size and in sexual characters. 



The group to which belong Epeira angulata and nordmanni has in 

 America numerous species, two, of which only young females have 

 yet been found, being probably identical with the European species 

 named. Several species, of which only young are known, approach 

 E. dromedaria and E. bicornis. 



Epeira diademata, the commonest of the Epeiridse in Europe, and 

 fippirently the most liable to be exported, has not been found in 

 America, nor is its place rilled by any similar species. Epeira insu- 

 laris Hentz was supposed from Hentz's description and figure to be 

 E.marmorata of Europe; it differs but little from it. E. irifolium 





