177 



has so often been referred, I have in my Rec. crit. Aran. (loc. cit.) 

 endeavoured to prove '). Of the following citations, that which we 

 have drawn from Reuss is uncertain: it may perhaps indicate D. 

 scutulatus L. Koch, under which it is taken up by L. Koch, as 

 well as D. 4-maculatus or sericeous Sund., Westr., which last probably 

 is not rare in Germany (I have myself met with it at Giessen). 

 The citation from Ohlekt is dubious in the same respect. — Judging 

 from C. Koch's figures in Die Arachn., that writer's D. sericeus, 

 which is also by L. Koch classed under D. scutulatus, certainly 

 ad partem belongs to L>. 4-puncUttus , for in these figures the meta- 

 tarsi of the 4 th pair of legs are evidently longer than the tibise. — 

 Walckenaer's description of D. sericeus is only an extract from Scn- 

 devall's: the animal itself was unknown to him. — Specimens of both 

 sexes, that I have sent to L. Koch, have by him been identified as 

 belonging to his JJrassus medius. The differences, which that distin- 

 guished arachnologist, in the passage referred to, considered that he 

 had discovered between D. sericeus as described by Westring and 

 D. medius, do not really exist: both Westring and L. Koch call the 

 posterior central eyes round (they are however, as L. Koch rightly 

 observes, "etwas eckig verzogen") and as regards the length of the 

 legs, they are, in comparison with that of the cephalothorax, scarcely 

 perceptibly longer according to Westring's measures than according 

 to those given by Kocu. 



As regards D. ruoe?is Westr., I can see nothing more in that 

 species than somewhat larger and paler specimens, than is usually 

 met with, of D. 4-punctatus. Not even in the organs of copulation 

 can I discover any difference. I have had the opportunity of exa- 

 mining one of the specimens (a dried ?) which had served as the ground 

 of Westring's description. I have also two full-grown specimens 

 preserved in spirits, a 3 and ?, the former from Mjorn in Bohus- 

 lan (the same place whence Westring received specimens), presented 

 to me by Dr Ax. Ljungman, the latter caught in Skane by Prof. 

 Lilljeborg. These specimens perfectly agree with Westring's descrip- 



1) The original description of A. 4-punctata (in LiNN5:us' Journey to Gland, 

 p. 34) is as follows (the Swedish part being rendered into Latin): "Araneus ohlon- 

 git.s fuscus abdomine nigro, apke spinoso, tergo quattuor punctis depressis notato 

 in domibus inventus est; pedes ejus fusci erant, cephalothorax colore fuliginis; 

 abdomen nigrum, cinereo-pilosum , in apice 5 vel 6 pallidas et molles spinas ha- 

 bebat, de quibus fila deducebantur'. 



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