66 



TEXTBIX DENTICULATA. 



Aranea dentioulata, Olivier, Encyl. Moth, iv., p. 213. 

 Textrix lyoosina, Blackw., Spid. Great Brit, and Irel. p. 172, 

 pi. xii., fig, 110. 



I have found this handsome spider, but rarely in any other 

 locality than in Portland, where it occurs freely in the cracks 

 and crevices of the blue-clay cliffs, and among rocks and stones> 

 and in the walls of old stone quarries ; its snare is similar to that 

 of Tegenaria, consisting of a thin sheet of web, stretched horizon- 

 tally near the crack or crevice in which the spider lives ; and 

 into this crevice is spun the tubular, or semi-funnol-shaped, 

 passage through which the spider goes in and out. The colour 

 of this spider is nearly black, with' distinctly annulated, black 

 and pale coloured legs ; the upper side of the abdomen has a broad, 

 longitudinal, dentated band, of a red and yellow colour, mixed 

 with brown and blackish, running from the fore extremity to a 

 little way above the spinners. The cubital and radial joints of 

 the male palpus are furnished with long black bristles, and the 

 latter joint has a strong, sharp projection at its extremity on the 

 outer side. The palpal organs are highly developed and 

 complex. 



The length of the male is about 3 lines, and the female is 

 somewhat larger. 



TEXTRIX BOOPIS. 



Aoelena boopis, Ccimlr., Zoologist 1863, p. 8571. 



A very young example only of this spider has as yet been 

 found. The greater (apparent) inequality in the size of the 

 eyes, as well as a rather different disposition of them, led me to 

 describe it some years ago as a new species. I have more 

 recently had some doubts whether it may not be meroly a very 

 young examplo of Textrix denticulata, as I have since found, in 

 reference to some other very young spiders, that in this stage 

 the relative proportion of the eyes appears to be exaggerated, 



