LINYPHIA. 
239 
outer margin of each branchial operculum, and several similar ones, more or less confluent, 
occur about the spinners; a very long, subcylindrical process of a red-brown colour, notched 
at the extremity, and provided with long hairs on the inferior surface, is directed backwards 
from the sexual organs, with the anterior margin of which it is connected; the branchial 
opercula have a pale-yellow tint. The black marks on this species are liable to vary both 
in form and number, some individuals being entirely without the series of angular lines on 
the upper part of the abdomen. 
The male is smaller and darker coloured than the female. Its cephalo-thorax has a 
brown hue, and its legs, palpi, falces, and maxillae are tinged with red. The radial joint of 
the palpi is larger than the cubital, and has a prominent, conical process near its base, on 
the outer side, at the extremity of which there are two long bristles; the digital joint is 
somewhat oval, with a large lobe on the outer side ; it is convex and hairy externally, concave 
within, comprising the palpal organs; these organs are highly developed, prominent, com¬ 
plicated in structure, with a black, pointed process at their base, on the outer side, a large 
scale-like process curved round their inner side and base, which terminates at a prominent, 
membraneous process on the outer side, and a curved, filiform, black spine on the inner side, 
whose point is directed downwards; their predominant colour is red-brown. 
In the autumn of 1837 an adult female of this species was received from Mr. John 
Parry, who captured it at Trafford, near Manchester; and in the years 1851 and 1852 Mr. 
R. H. Meade found both sexes on the fronds of the male shield-fern, Lastrea filixmas, growing 
in woods about Bradford, in Yorkshire, in which district it is very common ( f Zoologist/ vol. 
x, p. 3678). This spider is of such rare occurrence in the vicinity of Llanrwst, that a single 
adult male is the only specimen of it which has been obtained in that locality during a period 
of twenty years, and it was taken in an outbuilding in the winter of 1852. Both sexes, in a 
state of maturity, were received in 1858 from Mr. J. Hardy, who took them in Berwickshire. 
Linyphia pernix. 
Linyphia pernix, Blackw., Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist., second series, vol. x, p. 98. 
— — Blackw., Ibid., vol. xi, p. 120. 
Length of the male, T ‘ 8 th of an inch; length of the cephalo-thorax, T ' 5 th, breadth, ^th ; 
breadth of the abdomen, Ath; length of an anterior leg, 1th; length of a leg of the third 
pair, ith. 
The falces are long, powerful, sub-conical, with a protuberance at the base, in front, and 
a few teeth on the inner surface; they are inclined towards the sternum, and are of a reddish- 
brown colour. The maxillae are rather darker coloured than the falces, straight, and some¬ 
what enlarged at the extremity, which is curvilinear at its exterior angle. The lip is semi¬ 
circular, prominent at the apex, and, like the sternum, which is heart-shaped, of a very dark- 
brown hue. The cephalo-thorax is oval, convex, glossy, with an indentation in the medial 
line, and some coarse hairs, directed forwards, behind the eyes ; its colour is dark-brown. 
32 
