178 



tion, and have been by Westring himself identified as belonging to 

 his D. rubens. These same specimens I sent to Dr L. Koch , to ascer- 

 tain whether they belong to that author's D. rubens, but neither 

 could he discover that they in any way specifically differ from JD. 

 medius, i. e. from D. 4-punctatus or sericeus Westr. 



Whether D. rubens Walck. (Ins. Apt., I, p. 617) — under which 

 several species, D. montanus Hahn, D. murmus Hahn, I), cinereus 

 Hahn and Filistata incerta Keuss are cited, and which has "mandi- 

 bules porte'es en avant" — belong to D. rubens L. Koch or not , I dare 

 not attempt to decide; from D. rubens Westr. it is certainly diffe- 

 rent ')• To me it seems best to drop that name entirely, and give 

 L. Koch's I). rubens a new name, provided it really be a particular 

 species separate from D. 4-punctatus. I ought to remark that the 

 characteristic whereby L. Koch, in his analytical table of species, 

 distinguishes his D. rubens from D. medius or 4-punctatus, is not 

 constant: a spine on the tibia of the 3 rd pair of legs is often, but 

 not always, met with even in the last mentioned species, especially 

 in cT. Menge (Verzeichn. Danz. Spinn., p. 62) has also a "D. ru- 

 bens", said to "resemble Dysdera? ; it is also taken up by Ohlert in 

 his Aran. d. Prov. Preuss., p. 95. Menge and Ohlert class D. mon- 

 tanus Hahn 2 ) under this D. rubens (which Ohlert had never seen). 



The long and coarse process on the tibial joint in Blackwall's 

 figure of the palpus of his D. sericeus, seems to me to show that he 

 had the real D. sericeus or 4-punctatus before him. A cf ad. from 



1) In Faune Fran?., Arachn. , p. 161, Walckenaer gives the following 

 lengthey description of the vulva in his D. rubens: '"L'epigyne ou l'organe pre- 

 vulvaire offre d'abord une elevation arrondie, glabre et rougeatre, quoique ayant 

 des poils jaunes fins qui ne cache point sa surface. Cet espace arrondi montre a 

 sa partie inferieure une large ouverture en carre long, elargie a sa partie supe- 

 rieure par deux petites echancrures anguleuses laterales, une de chaque cote. 

 Sous le bord superieure de cette ouverture, et les petits poils qui la hordent, en 

 forme de cils, on apercoit deux petits trous ou enfoncements d'un rouge pale, au 

 has desquels se prolonge un conjoncteur glabre, luisant, d'un brun rouge, conique 

 ou diminuant vers sa partie posterieure, qui atteint presque a l'extremite de la 

 grande ouverture , et est porte sur un fond glabre , brun rouge , qui la remplit, et 

 encadre par les levres a rebords brun rouge, et glabres comme le conjoncteur 

 qui les borde. Le tout s'aplatit et ce confond avec le rebord de l'epigastre, qui 

 est borde dans cette endroit par des poils jaunes plus longs. L'ensemble a beau- 

 coup de ressemblance avec l'organe prevulvaire d'une femelle de plusieurs qua- 

 drupedes". 



2) Die Arachn., II, p. 12, Taf. XLI, fig. 103. 



