OCR Text |
Show 1879.] SPIDERS FROM NEW ZEALAND. 693 Genus WALCKENAERA, Bl. WALCKENAERA CRISTATA, Bl. Examples of both sexes of this Spider were contained among others kindly brought to m e from N e w Zealand by Mr. A. S. Atkinson, in 1878. I have carefully compared them with types of the species found both in England and in various parts of the continent of Europe, and (excepting in being a little larger) can find no structural difference whatever. The occurrence of this species in N e w Zealand, where it can have had but slight chance of being introduced from Europe, is very interesting, especially as it is the first Spider of this large group as yet recorded from the Antipodes. I should now confidently expect that many more species of Walckenaera will be found in New Zealand, when its Microaraneee come to receive due attention. Genus LINYPHIA. L I N Y P H I A S U B D O L A , sp. n. (Plate LIII. fig. 11.) Length of an adult female 2| lines, and of an adult male l£ line. The cephalothorax of the female is of a dark yellow-brown colour; the lateral marginal constrictions at the caput are moderate, the other normal indentations well marked. The profile forms a slight, but tolerably even curve to the eyes, though slightly fuller near the occiput; the height of the clypeus exceeds half that of the facial space, and its direction is nearly vertical. The eyes are rather closely grouped in tbe usual four pairs; those of the lateral and hind-central pairs are of fair size, very nearly equal, and seated on black tubercular spots; the interval between those of the hind-central pair is equal to nearly about half of an eye's diameter, and each is separated by a diameter's distance from the hind-lateral eye on its side, and by a slightly greater interval from the fore-central eye next to it. The fore-centrals are very small, indistinct, and contiguous to each other. The legs are rather slender, moderately long, of a yellowish or brownish-yellow hue, furnished with fine hairs and a very few slender bristle-like spines. Their relative length appears to be 1, 4, 2, 3. The palpi of the female are slender, and similar in colour to the legs; in those of the male, the cubital and radial joints are very short; the latter is longest and much the strongest, being enlarged gradually from the posterior to the anterior extremity, and furnished on the sides with numerous strong bristly hairs. The digital joint is long, and tapers regularly to a point. The palpal organs are tolerably complex ; at their base on the outer side is a small, curved, obtusely-ended, corneous process; and on the inner side, opposite to it, is a curved spine, whose attenuated point has a circular form. The falces are tolerably long, rather strong, a little prominent at their base in front, divergent at the extremities, and slightly directed backwards ; on their inner sides are four longish sharp teeth. The colour of the falces is like that of the cephalothorax. |