210 



LINYPHIA PARVULA. 



Lintphia parvula, Weatr., Aran. Suec., p. 135. 



„ longipes, Cambr., Trans. Linn. Soo. xxvii., p. 430, 

 pi. 55, No. 24. 

 Bathyphantes ionotpes, Menge, Preusg. Spinn., p. 116, pi. 21, 

 Tab. 42. 



The male measures 1-1 2th of an inch in length. 



The cephalo-thorax is of a dark brown colour, with dusky 

 black margins, and converging lines on the sides, of tho same 

 hue. The caput is a little elevated, and prominent at the eyes, 

 chiefly owing to a dip or hollow, most visible in profile, between 

 the caput and thorax. The legs are very long, slender, of a 

 dark yellow-brown colour, and the spines are neither strong nor 

 numerous, though distinct. The length of tho legs of the fourth 

 pair is greater than that of the first. The palpi are not very 

 long; the radial and cubital joints are short, and of equal 

 length ; the former is rather gibbous, furnished with a 

 few bristly hairs on its upper side, and slightly produced 

 towards its inner side. The digital joint has a prominent lobe 

 on its outer side forwards. The palpal organs are prominent and 

 complex, the most noticeable of their processes being one of a 

 curved form at their base on the outer side, having its upper 

 edge fringed with bristly hairs ; and a slender black spine coils 

 round their extremity. 



The abdomen is black. 



The female is larger than tho male, and her legs are shorter . 

 but the sexes are similar in colour. 



I first met with this spider at Southport, Lancashire, in 1859 ; 

 but afterwards found it in abundance, spinning an irregular web, 

 among stems of grass and rubbish in woods, swamps, and waste 

 places at Bloxworth, in May, 1863. Since then I have scarcely 

 met with it at all. The male is verysimilar in the structure of its 

 palpi to Linyphia circumspecta Bl., but is larger, and never has the 



