14 



The head-quarters of this group, which is an extensive and well- 

 marked one, is in Eastern Europe, Egypt, Palestine, and Asia 

 Minor. One species alone has yet boen found in England 

 (where it is widely dispersed, but rare and local), being also 

 found in Dorsetshire. 



GNAPHOSA ANGLICA. 



Drassus lucifuqus, Blacho., Spid., Groat Brit, and Irel., p. 105, 



pi. vi., fig. 62 (in part). 

 „ anglicus, Cambr., Trans., Linn, Soc. xxvii, p. 419, pi. 



54, No. 10. 

 Gnaphosa anglica, Cambr., Ann. and Mag. N. H. s. 5, vol. 1, 



p. 110. 



The male of this spider is 2|- to 3 lines in length, the female 

 often considerably larger. 



The cophalo-thorax is deep brown, with a V-shaped black- 

 brown marking near the middle — the point of the V directed 

 backwarks. The legs and palpi are of the same colour, and 

 the abdomen is of a rather glossy, sooty-black hue, hairy, and 

 with some erect, deepor black, stronger hairs scattered over its 

 surface. 



I have found it, though rarely, under stones, dry cow dung, 

 and at heather roots, on Bloxworth Heath ; and more frequently 

 (during the month of June, 1877) in company with other 

 spiders under the dry crust, formed by the desiccation of small 

 muddy pools on the dampor parts of the heath. 



I have recently received it from Berwickshire, but it has not 

 yet, so far as I am aware, boon found on the continent. 



GENUS PROSTHESIMA, L. Koch. DEASSUS, Bl. (in part). 



This Genus is very closely allied to Drassus. It may bo most 

 readily distinguished by the point at which the palpi are articu- 

 lated to the maxilloe, being nearer to the extremity than to the base 

 of the latter. In general form, appearanco, and structure, as 

 well as in their mode of life, and the situation in which thoy are 



