198 



brownish-black. In some examples the angular bars are 

 stronger and better denned, and the pattern is then most con- 

 spicuous, as a yellow-brown one, on a black ground. The 

 original examples on which the species was founded were of this 

 kind. 



The sexes resemble each other very nearly in colours and 

 markings, but the abdomen of the female is exceedingly convex 

 above, and in some examples is entirely black, with some 

 dull brownish-yellow markings along the middle of the upper 

 side. 



Found in spring on iron railings, and throughout the summer 

 among heather, at Bloxworth, but not in any abundance. It is 

 nearly allied to Linyphia flacipes, Blackw. 



LINYPHIA NIGRINA. 



Luttphia nigeina, Westr., Aran. Suec., p. 132. 



„ pulla, Blackw., Spid. Great Brit, and Irel., p. 234. pi. 

 xvi., fig. 156. 



Length of the male about l-8th of an inch. 



This spider is very closely allied to Linyphia pullata, Cambr., 

 but is larger, and of a darker hue. The abdomen is brown- 

 black, with a central longitudinal dentated pale band on the 

 upper side, and an obscure pale stripe on each side of the fore 

 extremity. In some examples the central band is broken up into 

 ft series of somewhat triangular patches, whose vertices are 

 directed forwards ; being in fact the intermediate spaces between 

 the ordinary transverse angular black bars, which have here 

 become the ground colour, and are seldom or never conspicuous 

 as a dark pattern on a light ground, as in Linyphia pullata and 

 others. The legs are not quite of so clear a yellow as in that 

 species, and the palpal bulb is larger. The palpal organs also 

 differ in structure, and are furnished, at their extremity, with a 

 coiled, black, filiform spine, within the coil of which appears 

 the prominent point of another spine. The digital joint is 



