421 



Of this species I possess only 4 specimens, all males, from 

 Austria; they vary in length from 7 to 9 millim. In one of these 

 specimens are three pairs of black spots on the back of the abdomen, 

 in the others the two hindermost, smaller spots are wanting, so 

 that the abdomen has only two pair of spots; these four large spots 

 are surrounded by a white ring, even in the specimen that has three 

 pair of spots; but the ring is not very distinct in one of the three 

 specimens with but four spots. The red margins of the cephalo- 

 thorax are in all the specimens rather narrow, as in C. Koch's figu- 

 res of E. illustris and E. cinnabarinus ; the four anterior legs are 

 black, with a little ring of white hair at the apices of the thighs, 

 patellae and tibiae; the thighs of the second pair are above, towards 

 the base, more or less deeply red-haired: the four posterior legs are 

 red or reddish black, their thighs for the most part red, their pa- 

 tellae red-haired above, at least at the apex; these legs have also at 

 the extreme end of the patella, tibia and metatarsus an extremely 

 narrow broken ring or spot of white hair. 



To me it appears certain, that C. Koch's E. cinnabarinus, 4-gut- 

 tatus and illustris belong to one and the same species, and Ar. pw- 

 purata Panz. or E. annulatus Hahn is probably nothing but a va- 

 riety of the same. No certain difference of form between E. cinna- 

 barinus and E. annulatus has ever been shown to exist, for the diffe- 

 rences in the position of the eyes and in the length of the legs which 

 C. Koch mentions (loc. cit., XIV, p. 14), van Hasselt ') — although 

 he nevertheless considers E. annulatus as a separate species — has 

 not been able to confirm. The difference in the number of the black 

 abdominal spots, and the presence or absence of a white ring round 

 them, offer, as we have just seen, no satisfactory criterion for dis- 

 tinguishing the forms in question; the only difference appears to lie 

 in the colour of the posterior legs, which in "E. cinnabarinus™ are 

 more or less reddish throughout their whole length, but in "E. an- 

 nulatus" are said to be black, without any shade of red. E. illustris 

 however appears to constitute a transition-form, for in this spider the 

 thighs of the posterior legs are stated to be red , while the remaining 

 joints are black. — Should E. annulatus really prove to be an in- 

 dependent species, its proper name will be E. purpuratus (Panz.) 1804. 



Probably Aranea nigra Pet. 1787 (= Eresus ater Walck. 1805, 

 Chersis dubius id. 1837) 2 ) is nothing but an E. cinnabarinus; but as 



1) Over d. Eresus annulatus Hahn (Tijdschr. v. Entom., XV. (1872)), p. 4. 



2) Petagna, Specim. Ins. Ulter. Calabr., p. 34; Walck. , Tabl. d. Aran., 

 p. 21; m., H. N. d. Ins. Apt., I, p. 392. 



