LINYPHIA. 
217 
largest, and the anterior ones the smallest of the eight. The legs are long, slender, provided 
with hairs and erect spines, and of a yellowish-brown hue faintly tinged with green; each 
tarsus is terminated by three claws ; the two superior ones are curved and pectinated, and 
the inferior one is inflected near its base. The palpi resemble the legs in colour, and have a 
slightly curved claw at their extremity. The abdomen is oviform, thinly clothed with hairs, 
glossy, very convex above, projecting over the base of the cephalo-thorax; along the middle 
of the upper part there extends an obscurely dentated, dark-brown band, bordered with white, 
and encompassed by a dark-brown band, below which, and surrounding the whole, is a white 
band, whose continuity is more or less interrupted; all below the last-named band, including 
the branchial opercula, is of a dark-brown hue, approaching to black; the external orifices of 
the sexual organs are exceedingly minute, and a small, semicircular process is connected with 
their inferior margin. 
The sexes differ from each other in various particulars. The male is smaller and slen¬ 
derer than the female, its cephalo-thorax is longer, its maxillae are somewhat enlarged at the 
extremity, and its legs have a light red-brown tint. The palpi resemble the legs in colour, 
with the exception of the radial and digital joints, which have a brownish-black hue; the 
cubital and radial joints are short, the latter being much the stronger, particularly at its 
extremity; the digital joint is of an oblong-oval form, convex and hairy externally, concave 
within, comprising the palpal organs, which are highly developed, complicated in structure, 
with a process directed upwards, which extends beyond the base of the joint, and a long, 
filiform, piominent spine enveloped in a delicate membrane, and curved upwards and some¬ 
what outwards in a circular form; their colour is brownish-black tinged with red. The 
convex sides of the digital joints are directed towards each other. The abdomen is nearly 
cylindrical, glossy, and of a brownish-black hue, with a white spot on each side of its anterior 
extremity. 
Linyphia fuliginea is found in various parts of North Wales and Lancashire; it pairs in 
June, and constructs a snare of moderate dimensions among the grass of meadows and 
pastures. The male closely resembles the male of Linyphia pratensis, but may be distin¬ 
guished from it by its inferior size, and by the structure of its palpal organs. 
Linyphia rubea. PI. XV, fig. 143. 
LinypUa rubea , Blackw., Linn. Trans., vol. xviii, p. 661. 
Blackw., Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist., second series, vol. viii, 
p. 450. 
Length of the female, Uhs of an inch; length of the cephalo-thorax, ^th, breadth, ^st; 
breadth of the abdomen, -ith; length of an anterior leg, ith; length of a leg of the third 
pair, ith. 
The cephalo-thorax is oval, slightly compressed before, convex, glossy, with a large 
indentation in the medial line; it is of a yellowish-brown colour, with the exception of the 
anterior part, which has a dark-brown tint. The falces are powerful, conical, armed with 
