1941] 
Spider Fauna of New England 
135 
Family Theridihle 
Genus Nesticus Thorell 1870 
Nesticus cellulanus (Oliv.) 
Aranea cellulanus Olivier, Araignee, Encycl. Method., 
1789, 4: 211. 
Araneus cellulanus Clerck, Aranei suecici, 1757, p. 62, 
pi. 4, fig. 12. 
Theridion terrestre Emerton, Psyche, 1924, 31:140, 
fig. 1. $ 
A female of this European house spider was found out of 
doors at Holliston by Mr. Emerton. Later a male was 
found in Nova Scotia and it was recognized then as the 
European species. The position of the genus is very un- 
certain. As it has a distinct comb on the fourth tarsus, it 
has been placed by many in the Theridiidae, the only family 
with this character. But it also has a huge paracymbium, a 
character confined to the Linyphiidae and the Argiopidae . It 
does not make a round web. 
Genus Conopistha Karsch 1881 
The genus Argyrodes was established by Simon in 1864, 
in the first edition of the Histoire Naturelle des Araignees, 
p. 253, for a small species found about the Mediterranean. 
Unfortunately, the name has been used by Guenee in 1845, 
for a genus of Micro-Lepidoptera. In 1928, Strand published 
“Miscellanea nomenclatorica Zoologica et palaeontologica” 
in the Arch. Naturgesch. Berlin, 92, A. Heft 8, pp. 30-75 and 
proposed Argyrodina for Argyrodes. But Karsch, in 1881, 
(Diagn. Japonicse , Berliner ent. Zeitschr.) erected the 
genus Conopistha for the Japanese species bona-dea, a new 
species. Later, Bosenberg and Strand placed this species in 
Argyrodes , (Japanische Spinnen, Abd. Senckenb. Ges., 1906, 
30: 129.) . The name Conopistha has priority over Argyro- 
dina. 
The genus is very wide spread. The species are small, and 
both sexes are usually an iridescent silver. They live in the 
webs of larger spiders and catch small flies that escape the 
larger mesh. Two species of the genus are found in New 
England, cancellatus Hentz and trigonum Hentz. 
