LINYPHIA. 
235 
line; the falces are powerful, conical, armed with a few teeth on the inner surface, slightly 
divergent at the extremity, and inclined towards the sternum, which is heart-shaped; the 
maxillae are straight, with the exterior angle, at the extremity, curvilinear ; and the lip is 
semicircular and prominent at the apex. These parts are of a brown-black colour, the 
sternum, lip, and lateral margins of the cephalo-thorax being the darkest, and the falces 
having a tinge of red. The legs are long, slender, provided with hairs and a few fine spines, 
and have a light yellow-brown hue; the first pair is the longest, then the second, and the 
third pair is the shortest; each tarsus is terminated by three claws ; the two superior ones 
are curved and slightly pectinated, and the inferior one is inflected near its base. The palpi 
have a dark-brown tint, with the exception of the humeral joint, which has a yellowish- 
brown hue. The abdomen is oviform, glossy, sparingly clothed with short hairs, convex 
above, projecting over the base of the cephalo-thorax; it is of a brown-black colour, with a 
sharply dentated, pale yellow-brown band extending along the middle of its upper part, and a 
rather obscure line of the same hue on each side of its anterior extremity ; the sexual organs 
have a thin, longitudinal septum in the middle, a small process connected with their posterior 
margin, which is directed backwards, and their colour, with that of the branchial opercula, 
is yellowish-brown. The medial, dentated band, is much less perfectly defined in some 
individuals than in others. 
The form of the male is slighter than that of the female, and its colour is darker, the 
dentated band in the medial line of the upper part of the abdomen being rather more obscure. 
The cubital and radial joints of the palpi are short, and the latter, which is the stronger, is 
somewhat produced at its extremity, on the inner side; the digital joint is of an irregular 
oval figure, having a slender, curved process at its base, on the outer side, and a large lobe 
near its extremity, on the inner side; it is convex and hairy externally, concave within, 
comprising the palpal organs; these organs are very highly developed, prominent, complicated 
in structure, with two strong, curved spines at their extremity, one of which describes a 
circle and comprises within its circumvolution some light-coloured membrane and the recurved 
point of the other spine ; they are of a dark-brown hue tinged with red. The convex sides 
of the digital joints are directed towards each other. 
Both sexes of this spider, in a state of maturity, were discovered by Mr. R. H. Meade, 
in the summer of 1852, on the fronds of the male shield-fern, in Nab Wood, near Bingley, 
in Yorkshire; and in the autumn of the same year, an adult female was transmitted to him 
by Mr. F. Walker, who took it at Southgate. 
Linyphia alacris. PL XVII, fig. 157. 
Linyphia alacris , Blackw., Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist., second series, vol. xi, 
p. 20. 
— — Blackw., Ibid., p. 119. 
Length of the female, T ' B th of an inch; length of the cephalo-thorax, ~th, breadth, -J,th; 
breadth of the abdomen, ®nd; length of an anterior leg, Ijths; length of a leg of the third 
pair, ,lth. 
