OCR Text |
Show 222 REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE O N [Mar. 4, male; in other respects the falces are like those of that sex, a little less strong. In colours and markings this species is very like L. albipunctata ; but the less-convex abdomen, with the massiveness and prominence of the falces, and, especially in the male, the trifid tooth-like prominence in front of them, distinguish it at a glance both from that species and any other of the genus known to me. L. trifididens shows a decided approach to Spiders of the genera Pachygnatha and Meta ; and it is not without some hesitation that I have (in absence of any knowledge of its habits) placed it in the genus Linyphia. Three males (two adult) and an adult female were comprised in the St.-Helena collection received from Mr. Melliss. Genus ARGYRODES. A R G Y R O D E S EPEIRCE. Argyrodes epeirce, Sim. An. Soc. Ent. Fr. 4e ser. torn. vi. 1866, p. 282, pl. 4. figs. 1-7. Adults of both sexes of this remarkable and interesting Spider were contained in Mr. Melliss's St.-Helena collections. Fam. EPEIRIDES. Genus TETRAGNATHA. T E T R A G N A T H A PELUSIA. Tetragnatha pelusia, Sav. Arachn. de l'Egypte, pl. 2. fig. 3. Well-marked examples of this species were found in the two last-received collections from St. Helena. Genus META. META DIGNA. Tetragnatha digna and T. indigna, Cambr. Spiders of St. Helena, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1869, pp. 535, 537, pl. xiii. figs. 3, 4. Adult male, length from 2| to 3| lines. In the former paper on St.-Helena Spiders a single immature male of M. digna was described as a distinct species, owing to a great dissimilarity in the pattern on the abdomen ; the present collection contained several adult males and females, proving beyond a doubt that they are of one species only, the apparent difference in the pattern on the abdomen not holding constant in the different adult examples of the sexes. The legs of the adult male are longer than those of the female, being nearly, if not quite, four times the length of the Spider. The palpi are rather long and slender ; the cubital joint is very short, and has at its fore extremity on the upperside a long, strong, tapering, nearly straight, black bristle directed forward, the radial being nearly four times as long, and increasing gradually in strength to its extremity, where it is furnished with a few long, strong, prominent black bristles and hairs. |