64 



character, however, of the abdominal markings, and the posses- 

 sion of calamistra and supernumerary .spinning organs, as w el 

 as the structure of the ordinary spinners, appear to me to point 

 to its present position as the most natural one. 



The maxillco are enlarged and rounded at their extremity, 

 straight, but a little inclined to the labium, which is of a some- 

 what oblong-oval form truncated at tho apex. 



The caput is vory slightly higher than the thorax, and its 

 lateral margins aro compressed. The eyes aro in two transverse, 

 curved rows ; those of each lateral pair are separated from each 

 other by a small but distinct interval, which is not very apparent 

 at first sight, as they are seated on contiguous dark-coloured 

 tubercles. Legs 1.4.2.3. Terminal tarsal claws 3. 



The species at present known in Britain aro three only. They 

 are all of considerable size — one almost, if not (at least in some 

 examples of the female) quite, the largest of our British spiders; 

 and all three aro found in Dorsetshire. 



AMAUROBIUS SIMILIS. 



Ciniflo similis, Blttckw., Spid. Great Brit, and Irel., p. 141, 

 pi. ix., fig. 89. 



The length of the male is about 5 lines, and tho femalo is 

 (often considerably) larger. 



The cephalo-tlnrax is of a reddish yellow-brown colour, 

 darkest on the forepart of the caput. Tho legs are very similar 

 in hue, with dark brown annulations ; and the abdomen is dark 

 brown with a broad, yellowish, longitudinal, band on the upper 

 side, broadest in the middle ; within the fore half of this band is 

 a more or less distinct, large, oblong, dark blackish-brown mark- 

 ing, broadest at its hinder extremity, and generally broken, both 

 longitudinally and transversely, by a pale interval. This is 

 followed, by a series of brown angular lines, to the spinners, 



