44 



GENUS PHRUROLITHUS, C. L. Koch, DEASSUS, Blacho. 

 in part. 



Tho cophalo-thorax in this genus is oval. The niaxillco strong, 

 enlarged, at the insertion of the palpi, very broad, at the base, 

 and inclined towards tho labium. Tho oyos aro in two short, 

 transverse, slightly-curved, concentric rows, the convexity of tho 

 curvo directed backwards. 



Only one species is recorded as British, and that ono is toler- 

 ably abundant in Dorsetshire. 



PHRUROLITHUS PESTIVUS. 



Pjirukolitiius festivus, C. L. Koch, Die Arachn. vi., p. 110, 



Taf. 207, fig. 511, 512. 

 Dbassus r-RoriXQUUs, Blacho., Spid., Great Brit, and Irel., p. 



120, pi. vi., fig. 74. 

 A very pretty little shining, activo, ant-like jspider, with some 

 brownish yellow-white markings and spots on the abdomen, 

 whose ground colour is deep brown. The length of the male is 

 one-ninth of an inch, the female being rather larger. Tho 

 cephalo-thorax is brown, clothed with hoary hairs, somo of 

 which are disposed in converging linos. Tho logs are tolerably 

 long, slender, and of a yellowish-brown colour, with tho femora 

 of the first and second pairs dark blackish-brown. Tho palpi 

 are strong; the humoral joint has a prominence near its 

 extremity underneath, clothed with hairs ; the radial joint has, 

 at its outer side forwards, a prominent apophysis of (compara- 

 tively) enormous size and curved form, its extremity being 

 slightly cleft, or bifid (pi. 1, fig. 15). Tho digital joint is large 

 and the palpal organs prominent, but not very complex. 



Tolerably abundant at Bloxworth, Portland, and other 

 localities in Dorsetshire ; being found under stones, among moss 

 and herbage, or debris in hedges, and marshy places ; in Portland 

 I have found it frequently under stones on tho Weymouth side 

 of the Chosil Beach, closo to high water mark. It appears to be 

 very abundant in tho Fens of Cambridgeshire, 



