DRASSUS. 
105 
Drassus lucifugus. PI. VI, fig. 62. 
Drassus lucifugus, Walck., Hist. Nat. des Insect. Apt., tom. i, p. 613. 
— — Sund., Yet. Acad. Handl., 1831, p. 138. 
— Koch., Uebers. des Arachn. Syst., erstes Heft, p. 18. 
Blaclvw., Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist., second series, vol. viii, 
p. 39. 
— melanogaster, Latr., Gen. Crust, et Insect., tom. i, p. 87. 
— Hahn, Die Arachn., Band ii, p. 11, tab. 41, fig. 102. 
Filistata femoralis, Wider, Museum Senckenherg. Band i, p. 206, taf. 14, fig. 5 
Pythonissa lucifuga, Koch, Die Arachn., Band vi, p. 54, tab. 194, figs. 468_470. 
Length of the female, i an inch; length of the cephalo-thorax, ith, breadth, |th; 
breadth of the abdomen, ^th; length of a posterior leg, \; length of a leg of the third 
pair, ^ths. 
The eyes are seated on the anterior part of the cephalo-thorax in two transverse, curved, 
diverging rows, the posterior of which is the longer and more curved. The cephalo-thorax is 
oval, convex, and sparingly clothed with hairs; the falces are powerful, conical, and vertical; 
the maxillae are greatly enlarged where the palpi are inserted; the lip is somewhat oval and 
rounded at the extremity; and the sternum is heart-shaped; the legs are robust; the 
posterior pair is the longest, then the first, and the third pair is the shortest. These parts are 
of a very dark, reddish-brown colour, the thighs and the humeral joint of the palpi being much 
the reddest. The abdomen is of an oblong-oviform figure, slightly depressed, rather broader 
at the posterior than at the anterior extremity, and projects over the base of the cephalo- 
thorax; it is covered with short, glossy hairs, and is black, with the exception of the 
branchial opercula, which are of a yellow colour; on the upper part there are six small 
depressions, disposed on each side of the medial line in two equal, parallel rows. 
The male, when adult, is distinguished from the female by its smaller size, and by the 
structure of its palpi and palpal organs. The radial joint of the palpi has a laro- e , curved 
pointed apophysis at its extremity, in front; the digital joint is oval, convex "and hairy 
externally, concave within, comprising the palpal organs, which are moderately developed, 
and not very complicated in structure. 
According to Dr. Leach (Supplement to the fourth, fifth, and sixth editions of the 
Encyclopaedia Britanmca/ article “ Annulosa”) the Drassus melanog aster of Latreille ( Drassus 
lucifugus, Walckenaer) has been found in England, under stones; and on his authority it is 
introduced here as a British spider. 
Since the above paragraph w 7 as written, an adult female Drassus lucifugus, which was 
taken by the Rev. O. P. Cambridge, in 1856, near Blandford in Dorsetshire, has been received 
from Mr. R. H. Meade. 
M. Koch remarks ('Die Arachn,' Band vi. pp. 55, 56). that in the month of June the 
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