372 
DYSDERIDiE. 
Length of the female, i±ths of an inch ; length of the cephalo-thorax, yUh, breadth, T lth; 
breadth of the abdomen, T Uh; length of an anterior leg, 1th; length of a leg of the third 
pair, gth. 
The legs are long, slender, and of a yellowish-brown colour, with broad, dark-brown 
annuli ; the first pair is rather the longest, then the fourth, and the third pair is much the 
shortest ; the tarsi are destitute of scopulse, and are terminated by three claws ; the two 
superior ones are curved and deeply pectinated, and the inferior one, which is minute, is 
inflected near its base. The palpi have a small curved claw at their extremity, and are of a 
uniform light red-brown hue. The cephalo-thorax is oval, convex, glossy, with a very slight 
indentation in the medial line, and is of a brownish-black colour. The falces are strong, 
conical, slightly prominent, and armed with a few small teeth on the inner surface ; the 
maxillse are long, very convex at the base, enlarged w'here the palpi are inserted, and 
somewhat pointed at the extremity; the lip is truncated at the apex; and the sternum is oval, 
with small eminences on the sides, opposite to the legs. These parts have a very dark- 
brown hue, the falces being the darkest, and the maxillae and lip the palest. The two 
anterior eyes are the largest of the six. The abdomen is of an elongated oviform figure, 
inclining to cylindrical, and projects very little over the base of the cephalo-thorax ; it is 
thinly clothed with hairs, and the colour of the upper part is dark-brown, or pale-brown 
mottled with numerous dark-brown spots; the under part has a yellowish-brown hue, a 
narrow brown band extending along the middle ; and the colour of the branchial and tracheal 
opercula is pale-yellow. Some individuals have the under part of the abdomen tinged with 
pink; its extremities in others are of a yellowish-white hue ; and the young in general are 
lighter coloured than adults. 
The sexes are similar in colour, but the abdomen is slenderer and more nearly cylindrical, 
the falces are more prominent, and the maxillae are rather more pointed at the extremity in 
the male than in the female. The cubital joint of the palpi is shorter than the radial, and the 
digital joint is small, oval, and protuberant underneath, near its articulation with the radial 
joint, from which protuberance the palpal organs project upwards; they are pyriform, glossy, 
with two small, curved, black spines near their extremity, which is abruptly contracted, and 
are of a yellowish-brown colour. 
Distinguished arachnologists have mistaken Dysdera Homheryii, first briefly described by 
Scopoli (‘Entomologia Carniolica,’ p. 403, No. 1119), for the young of Dysdera erythrina, 
from which it differs in colour and organization. A conviction of its specific distinctness 
having been induced by a careful examination of specimens captured in 1832, in the same 
year a description of it was given in the ‘ London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine,’ 
under the appellation of Dysdera Latreillii; but the trivial name, of course, is superseded by 
that originally conferred upon it by Scopoli. The tarsi of this species, it will be perceived, 
unlike those of its congeners, have three claws at their extremity, and are destitute of scopulm. 
Crevices in rocks and walls, and the under side of lichens growing on trees, are the favorite 
resorts of Dysdera Homheryii, which is plentiful in the wooded districts of Denbighshire, Caer¬ 
narvonshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire; and in the spring of 1849 an immature female was 
