Arachnida. 



8569 



Abdomen long-oval, of a deep brownish red colour thickly freckled 

 with yellowish, and thickly clothed with yellowish hairs. At 

 the front extremity there are a few stiff, strong, dark hairs, 

 curving upwards and slightly backwards. When in spirits of 

 wine there may be traced a pale yellowish medial line on the 

 forward half of the upper side, followed by some transverse 

 angular ones towards the spinners, which are long, prominent, 

 and of a dull yellow colour ; the upper ones suffused with 

 brownish red. Plates of the spiracles yellow, and two yellow 

 lines, running from the outer side of the spiracles, converge to 

 the spinners. 



The fenjale is rather larger than the male, and much darker coloured 

 (which is usually the case with females of this genus after the depo- 

 sition of their eggs); the falces are also shorter and stouter, and their 

 profile, instead of being nearly straight, is much curved outwards, 

 owing to the base of the falces being far more prominent in front than 

 * in the male. 



The male of this species bears some resemblance to the male of 

 Clubiona holosericea in the form of the palpi, but its general appear- 

 ance is more like that of C. amarantha ; and for this latter species it 

 was mistaken by Mr. Meade, who has for several years had it among 

 specimens of C. amarantha, but cannot remember where it was cap- 

 tured. I have, during the summer of 1862, met with it at Bloxworth, 

 Dorset, in woods. The females were abundant, sewn up, with their 

 eggs, in leaves of low-growing plants, principally in leaves of young 

 plants of Angelica sylvestris. The season for the males was evidently 

 passed : the only one of this sex I met with was enclosed jn a leaf, 

 like the females, but, unlike them, there was a place of exit left in the 

 folded leaf. In some of the leaves the young were hatched, and the 

 old females seemed tt> be exhausted and nearly dead : their nests were 

 to all appearance hermetically sealed, for I could find no entrance in 

 any direction, every corner being closely sewn up with white silky 

 web. The eggs were enclosed in a flattish lenticular cocoon of the 

 same material. 



In the veinings on the cephalothorax this species resembles Clu- 

 biona brevipes, but the male palpi differ totally in the form of the 

 radial joint; and by the form of this joint it may also be distinguished 

 at once from both C. amarantha and C. holosericea. From this latter 

 species it may be known also by its yellower colour, and coarser hairs 

 on the abdomen, the appearance of C. holosericea being gray, soft and 

 VOL. XXI. 2 L 



