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!943] Notes on Dictyolathys maculata 83 
NOTES ON DICTYOLATHYS MACULATA BANKS 
(ARANE^E: DICTYNID^E) 
By Elizabeth B. Bryant 
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Mass. 
Recently in examining some material from Raleigh, North 
Carolina, collected in January 1941, two females were found 
described as Dictyolathys maculata Banks. This genus, erected 
by Banks in 1900, was based on females from Mobile, Alabama, 
and Meridian, Mississippi, and was separated from Lathy s by 
the strongly procurved anterior eye row. 
In 1903, Simon, who had never seen a specimen, placed the 
genus as a synonym of Lathys and was followed by Emerton, 
in 1913. He described and figured the male from specimens 
collected May 1, 1912 at Lakehurst, New Jersey. At the end 
of the description, Emerton says, “In the original description 
of Dictyolathys maculata , Banks says that the front middle 
eyes can be indistinctly seen but I have not been able to find 
them in the Lakehurst specimens nor in the (Banks) type 
specimen from Alabama. They appear to have only six eyes in 
two groups as in Scotolathys pallida .” 
Today with the sharp light from a condenser, the small an- 
terior median eyes seen by Banks can be distinctly placed 
both in the type and the specimens used by Emerton, as well 
as in the recent material from Raleigh, so that the Banks genus 
Dictyolathys can no longer be considered a synonym either of 
Lathys or Scotolathys. 
For the benefit of those who do not have ready access to the 
original description of Dictyolathys Banks, I quote verbatim 
as follows: 
“Much like Dictyna , but apparently six-eyed, three in a 
group each side but the A.M.E. are present, although very 
small, and situated close to and a little higher than the A.S.E. 
Head not much elevated; legs of moderate length, no spines, 
but very hairy; accessory spinning organs like Dictyna.” 
A more detailed description of the genus can now be writ- 
