500 



Pound in the Grove at Cranmore, Ireland. [I have not seen 

 this spider. Like the last its genus appears rather doubtful.] 



GENUS WALCKENAEEA, Blackw. 

 WALCKENAERA MINUTISSIMA. 



Walckenaera minutissima, Cambr., Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 

 ser. 5, vol. iv. p. 203, pi. 12. 

 Adult female length % a line (l-24th of an inch). 

 The cephalo-thorax, legs, palpi, falces, maxillae, labium, and 

 sternum of this exceedingly minute spider are of a not very dark 

 brown colour, slightly tinged with reddish, the genual joints of 

 the legs being much paler than the rest. The abdomen is large, 

 of a globular form, and projects greatly over the thorax, its colour 

 being of a dull, olive green, strongly suffused with a sooty hue, 

 and its surface thinly clothed with short hairs. 



In its general form this little spider is very like Walckenaera 

 brevipes, Westr. (p. 142) ; resembling it in the short, broad 

 cephalo-thorax, short legs, and round abdomen. It is, however, 

 a smaller spider, and of a paler hue, and, although the eyes are 

 in a very similar general position, they are larger and more closely 

 grouped together. The interval, however, between those of the 

 central pair of the hinder row is greater, being doublo that which 

 separates each of them from the lateral eye on its side ; whereas 

 in Walckenaera Irevipes the eyes of the hinder row are separated 

 equal intervals. In the present spider the position of the 

 eyes approaches very nearly to that of Pholcomma gibbum, "Westr. 

 (p. 82). The height of the clypeus, also, in Walckenaera minutis- 

 sima is greater than that of Walckenaera brevipes, being very 

 nearly equal to two-thirds of the height of the ocular area, while 

 in Walckenaera brevipes it is only a little more than one-half of 

 the height of that area. In the male (when discovered) the 

 height of the clypeus will probably be found to exceed two-thirds 

 of that of the ocular area. 



The legs are slender, short, and furnished with hairs, one or 

 two being- erect. 



