NERIENE. 
249 
Neriene mahginata. PL XVII, fig. 167. 
Neriene marginata, Blackw., Lond. and Edinb. Phil. Mag., third series, vol. in, 
p. 188. 
— — Blackw., Research, in Zool., p. 363, pi. 3, figs. 6, 7. 
— — Blackw., Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist., second series, vol. ix, 
p. 19. 
Length of the female, 5 th of an inch; length of the cephalo-thorax, 7 lth, breadth, ^th ; 
breadth of the abdomen, ^th; length of an anterior leg, ! ,th; length of a leg of the third 
pair, 7 |ths. 
The legs are provided with erect spines and are of a reddish-brown colour, with annuli 
of a darker hue; the anterior and posterior pairs are equal in length; 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 cephalo-thorax is long, oval, convex, glossy, somewhat elevated 
before, where the eyes are seated, and has an indentation in the medial line ; the falces are 
strong, conical, rather divergent at the extremity, armed with teeth on the inner surface, and 
inclined towards the sternum, which is heart-shaped; the maxillae are enlarged at the 
extremity, and slightly inclined towards the lip, which is semicircular and prominent at the 
apex. These parts have a brownish-black tint. The two intermediate eyes of the posterior 
row are the largest of the eight, and with those of the anterior row, which are the smallest, 
form a trapezoid whose shortest side is before. The abdomen is oviform, convex above, 
projecting over the base of the cephalo-thorax ; the upper part is of a brownish-black colour, 
bordered by a dentated band of a pale-brown hue, thickly spotted with white, which passes 
above the spinners, but whose continuity is interrupted in front by a black bar intersecting it 
at right angles; a series of curved, angular lines, of a pale-brown colour, minutely spotted 
with white, extends along the middle ; the convex sides of these lines are towards each other, 
and their vertices are directed forwards; the sides and under part have a brownish-black tint, 
and are marked with a few white spots, four minute ones, wdiich describe a large quadrangle, 
occurring on the latter; the sexual organs are prominent; and the colour of the branchial 
opercula is dark red-brown. 
The figure of the male is slighter than that of the female, and its abdomen is more 
cylindrical; its colours also are darker, the design formed on the abdomen by their distribu¬ 
tion being sometimes almost obliterated, a white spot on each side of the upper part of its 
anterior extremity presenting the only trace of it. Its falces have one tooth on the inner 
surface much larger than the rest, and there are two protuberances at the base of each, in 
front, the larger being situated on the inner side and the smaller near the middle. The colour 
of its palpi is brownish-black, with the exception of the axillary and base of the humeral joint ; 
which have a reddish tint; the axillary joint has a conical process at its extremity, on the 
under side; the cubital and radial joints are short, and the latter, which is much the stronger, 
