90 



The species described by Westbing as "Th. hamattim (Koch)" 

 is by no means identical with C. Koch's Phmrolithus hamdtus (Die 

 Arachn., VI, p. 105, Taf. CCVI, figg. 597, 598). This last is of a 

 darker colour and has distinct rings on its legs, which is never the 

 case with Westeing's Th. hamatum. Phrurol. hamatus Koch belongs 

 probably to the genus Lithyphantes , not to Steatoda. Blackw all's 

 description and figures of Th. versntum perfectly suit Westbing's 

 species. Besides fullgrown females and younger individuals of both 

 sexes, which I have myself taken at Goteborg, in houses, behind 

 furniture, and in such places, in short in localities of the same kind 

 as those where Westbing found his specimens, I possess a fullgrown 

 male, from Finnland given to me by Noedmann. With this I have 

 through the kindness of Prof. Ohleet been enabled to compare the 

 original specimen (a male) of Eucharia zonata Ohl. 



TJcer. Nicolnccii, of which Prof. Canestbini has sent me a ?-spe- 

 cimen, I am not able to distinguish from Th. versntum or hamatum 

 Weste. The joints of the legs are only slightly darker at the 

 extremity, but for the rest the colour, as well as the form, the po- 

 sition of the eyes, the relative height of the clypeus and the man- 

 dibles, the form of the vulva etc., appear to me absolutely the same 

 in Th. Nicoluccii and in Steatoda versuta. JPhrurolithus erythro- 

 cephalus C. Koch 1839 (Die Arachn., VI, p. 109, fig. 550) is perhaps 

 but a variety of this species, which varies much in the marking 

 of its abdomen. I have myself captured, under a stone at Nice, 

 a ? with the abdomen of an almost uniform brown without spots. 

 I have also a full-grown male of a Steatoda from S. Paolo in Brazil, 

 which appears to me to be identical with S. versuta: the sexual 

 organs show no difference, but the head is a little more elevated, 

 and the posterior row of eyes, which in the European specimens 

 is, seen from above, straight or rather curved a little forwards, is 

 in this specimen curved slightly backwards! Westbing (Aran. Suec, 

 p. 183) speaks of a $ taken at Goteborg in a ship that had just 

 arrived from Brazil. 



The vulva consists of a tolerably large, almost semicircular 

 fovea, which is at the bottom, in front, divided by a low longitudinal 

 septum; behind it is limited by a thin transversal lamina truncated 

 (and, in a Swedish specimen, slightly notched) at the broad extremity. 

 — As to the male's organs of copulation, see Blackwall, loc. cit. 



On Th. Paykullianum Walck., which Westbing suspects to belong 

 to this species, vid. p. 92 sub Th. albo-maculatum Weste. 



