part, which is pointed at this extremity but hollow-truncate before.
The _abdomen_ is sparingly clothed with hairs; it is of a stoutish
regular oval form, and of a dull brownish yellow colour; its
fore extremity on the upper side is thickly blotched with deep
blackish-brown, and the whole length spanned by a series of about
five curved, or slightly angular, stoutish bars or chevrons,
formed of more or less confluent, dark, blackish-brown blotches
and markings; a more or less indistinct line of a similar nature
also divides the fore part of the upper side of the abdomen
longitudinally. There is some variety in the extent, depth, and
distinctness of these markings, but the figures given (Pl. XIX., p.
229, figs. B, B 1) show the appearance of an average example.
It must be remembered that this description is made from examples
in spirit of wine, and that in life the markings (especially on the
cephalothorax) are often considerably obscured by the hairs on the
surface; when seen through spirit the actual tints of colour are
sometimes misrepresented, but the characteristic markings are seen
more distinctly.
The lower part of the sides and the underside of the abdomen are of a
uniform pale dull brownish-yellow; the spinners of the superior pair
are short, strong, and 2-jointed; those of the inferior pair are very
minute, and near together at the base of, and almost between, the
others.
Adult and immature females were found in 1873-4 abundantly at
Montpellier in France, in unbranched tubular nests closed at the
surface with a close-fitting "cork" lid.
In _Harvesting Ants and Trap-door Spiders_, p. 92, a spider
inhabiting similar nests, and found commonly at _Cannes_ and Mentone
was described as _N. cæmentaria_, Latr. The subsequent discovery
however of a very closely allied, but certainly distinct, species
in abundance at Montpellier (the locality in which the original
_N. cæmentaria_, Latr., was found) makes it more than probable that
the _Montpellier_, and not the Mentone, species is the true _N.
cæmentaria_. Certainly as yet no other species more likely than this
to be the one described by Latreille has been found at Montpellier;
in fact, the one here described is the common one found there, and
alone answers to Latreille's character of having a nest with a lid of
the cork type.
It has become therefore necessary now to record the Mentone species
under another name, and under that name, "_N. Moggridgii_" (p. 273)
will be noted the specific differences by which the two species may
be at once distinguished from each other.
The male of the spider here described has not been yet found. A
description is given (p. 276) of a male spider, _Nemesia incerta_
(no doubt closely allied), found by M. Eugène Simon at Digne;
but reasons will be given why it is not probable that this Digne
spider should be, as conjectured by M. Simon, the male of the
Montpellier species. Whether the _N. carminans_ (Latr.) is the male
of _N. cæmentaria_ (Latr.) or not, is another question, and one
surrounded with some obscurity and difficulty. Latreille described
_N. cæmentaria_ (female) from Montpellier, and _N. carminans_ (male)
from Aix in Provence; the latter being specially characterized by a
bifid point to the prolongation of the palpal bulb; L. Dufour appears
subsequently to have considered _N. carminans_, Latr. (male) to be
the male of _N. cæmentaria_, and Latreille appears to have agreed
with L. Dufour upon this, _vide_ Walck. _Ins. Apt._, i. p. 236; but
Dufour afterwards (_Ann. Gen. Sc. Phys._, tom. v. Bruxelles, 1820,
p. 103) introduced an element of confusion into the question by
describing _N. carminans_ as having the point of the palpal organs
simple, "nullement bifid," and throwing out a suggestion that it
might be the male of _N. Sauvagii_, Latr., (= _N. pionnière_ or
_fodiens_, Walck.) Latreille upon this (_Vues générales sur les
Aranéides, Acad. Roy. des Sc._, 1830, pp. 64, 65) explains Dufour's
suggestion as an inadvertence, but takes no notice of the difference
of the form of the palpal organs as described by him; at the same
time however Latreille explains why, probably, Walckenaer "still
considers (in his _Faune française_) _N. carminans_ to be a distinct
species." We may conclude from this that Latreille never altered
_his_ opinion that his own _N. cæmentaria_ and _N. carminans_ were
the two sexes of the same species; and we shall probably rightly
agree with Walckenaer that Dufour had another species before him,
which he wrongly (l.c.) described as _N. carminans_.
Subsequently again a male and female spider, evidently of one
species, were figured by Dugès to illustrate _N. cæmentaria_ male and
female in Cuvier's _Règne Animal_--Edition in 20 vols. not numbered
and without date, published in Paris, "_accompagnée de Planches par
une réunion de disciples de Cuvier, MM. Audouin, Blanchard, Deshayes,
Aleide d'Orbigny, Doyère, Dugès, Duvernoy, Laurillard, Milne Edwards,
Roulin, et Valenciennes_." Of these figures, that of the male has the
point of the palpal organs distinctly bifid, and the nest figured is
of the cork-lid type.
On the whole it may be concluded that the male of the true _N.
cæmentaria_, Latr., will be found to have the bifid point to the
palpal organs, but the question cannot be considered settled until
further researches at Montpellier and Aix (in Provence) shall have
furnished _males_ of the _N. cæmentaria_ now described, and _females_
of the bifid pointed male--_N. carminans_, Latr.--for of course it
is possible that Latreille's _first_ views of the distinctness of
_cæmentaria_ and _carminans_ may be the correct ones.
The characters of the species now described accord so well with
the figures of the female in Dugès' plate (above mentioned) that
little doubt can be entertained of _their_ identity, and if so there
would seem to be little doubt also, but that further research at
Montpellier will reveal a male similar to the male figured by Dugès.
_Habitat._ Montpellier, France.
Nemesia Eleanora.
_Syn. Nemesia Eleanora_, Cambr., male and female, in _Harvesting Ants
and Trap-door Spiders_, by J. T. Moggridge, p. 180, Pl. XII. and
woodcuts, p. 109.
_Nemesia Alpigrada_ (Simon) male, _Aranéides nouv. ou peu connus du
Midi de l'Europe_, 2^e Mémoire. Liège, 1873, 2^e sér. t. v. p. 27
(separate copy.).
There is but little to add to the descriptions given (l.c. _supra_).
It must however be noted that the spines on the outer side of the
genual joints of the third pair of legs, then supposed to be a
characteristic of the present species only, are now found to exist
in several others, with some small exceptions in regard to number,
and also in respect to strict uniformity, on both legs of the same
individual. In _N. cæmentaria_ (p. 264), however, there is rarely
found even a single spine on either of these joints; and not one out
of ten examples of another species, _N. Simoni_ (p. 297), had even
one of these spines.
Shortly after the publication of _Harvesting Ants and Trap-door
Spiders_ the male of this species was described by M. Simon (l.c.)
from two examples taken at Vaucluse near Avignon.
_Habitats._ San Remo, Mentone, Cannes, Vaucluse near Avignon, and,
according to M. Simon, Digne, Basses Alpes.
Nemesia Moggridgii, sp. n., Plate XIX., fig. C, p. 229.
_Syn. Nemesia Cæmentaria_, Cambr., in _Harvesting Ants and Trap-door
Spiders_, (by J. T. Moggridge), p. 93, Pl. VIII.
This spider is exceedingly closely allied to the foregoing and was
thought to be the true _N. cæmentaria_, Latr., until subsequent
researches at Montpellier (the locality where Latreille's types were
found) have resulted in the belief that the Montpellier, rather
than the Mentone species, is that described by him. At present the
females only of the two species are known, and these may readily be
distinguished by the pattern on the caput.
In the foregoing (the _Montpellier Spider_) a broad orange
yellow-brown band runs from the ocular area to the thoracic
fovea, tapering gradually to that part, where it is truncated,
forming a wedge with the point cut off. This wedge-shaped band is
charged with two longitudinal, more or less distinct, dark brown
irregularly-tapering lines, running throughout its whole length and
converging towards each other but not touching.
In the _Mentone Spider_ there are three orange-yellow-brown
well-defined bars or longitudinal lines between the ocular area
and the thoracic fovea; the central bar tapers and reaches from
the eyes to the fovea, the lateral ones never more than two-thirds
of the distance from it to the eyes, diverging a little from the
central bar as they run forwards. These two lateral bars are not
straight, _i.e._, their margins are more or less notched or roughly
angular, forming in some examples a line of a somewhat zigzag or bent
character. It may perhaps be observed that when the two dark brown
lines which run along the broad orange-yellow-brown band on the caput
of the Montpellier spider, are well marked, this also leaves three
longitudinal yellow lines, somewhat similar to those just described
in the Mentone species, but there is this difference even then (and
it is constant throughout a long series of examples), the lateral
lines in the Montpellier spider _always run through to the eyes_,
equalling in length the central line, while in the Mentone spider the
_lateral bars never reach the eyes_, always stopping short of the
ocular area, by one-half, or nearly so, of their length.
Another distinction which appears constant is the form of the
thoracic fovea; in the Montpellier species this forms a slight
but uniform curve; in the Mentone spider it is more sharply bent
at the apex (or centre of the curve), forming in most examples a
bluntish-angular line.
In the eyes there appears to be but little reliable difference; if
there be any at all constant, it seems to be that in the present
(Mentone) species the fore-laterals are constantly smaller than the
hind-laterals, and sometimes smaller than the fore-centrals. A close
examination, however, of the relative size and position of the eyes
in a series of examples, lowers one's estimation of the _absolute_
value of this character in the determination of the species of
_Nemesia_; still it is a specific character not by any means to
be overlooked, though to be used guardedly, and often with great
reservation.
In regard to other characters and general description there seems but
little to add to the description given (l.c. _supra_), except that
the labium has no denticulations at its apex and the outer sides of
the genual joints of the third pair of legs are generally without
spines. Occasionally (in one example out of sixteen) there is a
single spine on this joint, of either the right or left leg. In this
character, however (differing from several others described below),
the Montpellier spider agrees with that from Mentone.
In both spiders, the fangs of the falces are (in some instances at
least) denticulated. Also in regard to the relative lengths of the
legs, like those of the Montpellier spider, the second and third
pairs of the Mentone species are not constant in their relative
proportions, though the differences either way are very slight, and
there is often no difference whatever.
The nest and habits of the two species appear to be nearly, if not
quite, similar.
In naming the present species (at the suggestion of M. Eugène
Simon) the writer of these descriptions gladly testifies to his
appreciation of the great value attaching to Mr. Traherne Moggridge's
investigations of the habits of the closely-allied species of this
very difficult, though most interesting group of spiders.
M. Eugène Simon (_Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr._ 1873, Bull, c.), perceiving
the difference between the present species and the one known to
himself as _N. cæmentaria_, Latr., concludes it to be identical with
_N. meridionalis_, Sim. Examples, however, of this latter, from M.
Simon's cabinet, show that they are very distinct.
On _N. meridionalis_, Sim., see p. 289; and on _N. cæmentaria_, Sim.,
p. 280, M. Simon has, I understand, subsequently admitted the error
of his conclusion, published l.c. _supra_.
_Habitat._ San Remo, Mentone, Cannes, Hyères, and Marseilles.
Nemesia incerta, sp. n., Plate XIX., fig. D, p. 229.
Adult male, length slightly above 4-1/2 lines.
_Cephalothorax_ oval, truncate at each end; moderately convex
above, the profile line forming a pretty even, sloping, curved
line, but flattish in the middle near the thoracic fovea, which is
of a strongly curved form; the other normal indentations are not
strong, though fairly defined; the colour of the cephalothorax is
yellow-brown, palish and clothed with yellowish-grey adpressed hairs
on the margins, and inclining to orange on the caput. The clypeus
is somewhat steep, about equal to half the height of the facial
space, and the sides of the caput are dark blackish-brown, leaving
a longitudinal, central reddish orange-brown band tapering to the
thoracic fovea.
The upper and hinder part of the thorax is strongly suffused with
brown, leaving broad but irregular pale lateral margins; there is a
group of strong bristles directed forwards from the margin of the
clypeus, and two or three more in the median line behind the ocular
area.
The _eyes_ are on a strongish oblong dark brown transverse
tubercular eminence; the fore-laterals are rather smaller than
the hind-laterals, and the fore-centrals are larger than the
hind-centrals, the latter being much the smallest of the eight; the
interval between those of each lateral pair is about equal to, or
slightly larger than, the diameter of one of the fore-central eyes;
the intervals between the four eyes of the front row are equal, each
interval being equal to the diameter of one of the fore-centrals;
and each hind-central eye is separated from the fore-central nearest
to it by as nearly as possible a similar distance, and from the
hind-lateral on its side by a very small but distinct interval.
The _legs_ are rather long, strong, of a brownish-yellow colour,
suffused with blackish-brown on the upper sides of the femora, and
furnished with hairs, bristles, and spines. Those of the hinder
(fourth) pair were wanting, the relative lengths of the others
being 1, 2, 3; 2 and 3 being very nearly equal. The spines are not
numerous, being disposed mostly on the tibiæ and metatarsi of the
third pair; some, however, had been evidently broken off; all the
tarsi were without spines; each tarsus ends with three claws, the
superior pair with several--6-8?--teeth on their under sides.
The tibial joint of each of the first pair is short, no longer than
the genual joint, but it is strong and enlarged gradually beneath
to its fore extremity, where it ends in a strong, sharp-pointed,
tapering red-brown curved spine, directed downwards, forwards, and
inwards. Each tarsus of the first and second pairs is pretty thickly
fringed just below on each side along its whole length, with short
strongish hairs of an even length.
On the outer side of the genual joint of the third pair (left leg)
are three spines in a longitudinal row; the other leg of this pair
was wanting.
The _palpi_ are moderately long, and similar in colour and general
armature to the legs; the radial joint is strong, a little tapering
forwards, and somewhat curved underneath towards its hinder part;
its length is about double that of the digital joint, and from its
fore extremity on the upper side, three strong, somewhat sessile,
spines of equal length, and directed forwards issue, in a straight
transverse line.
The palpal organs consist of a roundish corneous bulb drawn out into
a longish, tapering, curved, sharp-pointed spine, the point being
very fine, gradual, and directed outwards.
The _falces_ are strong, prominent, of a deep red-brown colour,
furnished above with dull greyish-yellow hairs mixed with dark
bristles, and disposed in longitudinal stripes; and near the upper
extremity on the inner side are four strongish spines.
The _maxillæ_ are strong, divergent, cylindrical, with a small
angular prominence at their inner extremity; they are furnished with
hairs, but no denticulations, and there is a strong fringe of reddish
hairs on their inner margins. The maxillæ are of the same colour as
the palpi.
The _labium_ is short and broad; its breadth double its height and
its apex rounded. Its junction with the _sternum_ appeared to be
about at right angles. It is darker in colour than the maxillæ, but
with a paler apex; its surface is furnished with bristly hairs, but
there are no denticulations at its apex. _Sternum_ oval, truncate
before, pointed behind, furnished with bristly hairs, and of the same
colour as the legs.
The _abdomen_ is of an oblong-oval form, truncate before, and
tolerably convex above; it is of a pale dull yellowish colour clothed
with yellow-grey hairs, among which are a good many prominent
dark bristly ones; the fore part of the upper side is irregularly
marked with black-brown; following this towards the hinder part,
and reaching half way or more to the spinners, is an indistinct
longitudinal central line of the same colour, throwing off numerous
short lateral lines at right angles; towards either side of the
hinder two-thirds of the abdomen are several oblique black-brown
lines extending more or less over the sides; one, about the middle,
extends farther over the sides than the rest, and almost unites with
a curved deep black-brown transverse line crossing the under side of
the abdomen a little way in front of the spinners.
The under side of the abdomen is similar in colour to the upper
side, and, besides the transverse dark line above mentioned, there
is another touching the anterior margins of the posterior spiracular
plates; the superior pair of spinners are short and strong; the
inferior pair small, and in the ordinary position, but apparently not
(proportionally) so small as in the females of some other species.
A single adult male was received for examination from M. Eugène
Simon, by whom it was found at Digne (Basses Alpes, France). M. Simon
conjectures that it may be the male of _Nemesia Moggridgii_ (p. 273),
but some slight differences in the size and positions of the eyes,
and in the pattern on the cephalothorax, and on the under, as well
as the upper, side of the abdomen, lead me to believe that it is of
a different, and hitherto undescribed species, though probably very
closely allied to some others, especially to _Nemesia Manderstjernæ_
(_N. meridionalis_, Cambr., described, p. 283); in the present
species however the hind-lateral eyes are much larger in proportion
than in _N. Manderstjernæ_.
_Habitat._ Digne, Basses Alpes, France.
Nemesia dubia, sp. n., Plate XIX., fig. E, p. 229.
Syn. _Nemesia cæmentaria_, Simon, _Aranéides nouv. ou peu connus du
Midi de l'Europe_, Mém. Liège, 1873 (separate copy), p. 24.
Adult male, length 5-1/2 lines to 6 lines.
M. Eugène Simon (l.c.) describes, as _N. cæmentaria_, Latr., both
sexes of a spider found by himself in the Pyrenees and Spanish
mountain regions.
Languedoc and Provence are also given as localities, but it is not
clear that he has himself found it in these latter parts, certainly
not the male.
Two examples of this sex, found in the Pyrenees, and received from M.
Simon, are now before me; these correspond, so far, very exactly to
the description he gives (l.c.); the female I have not seen.
If the position assumed (p. 271) on Latreille's own authority, that
the true male of _N. cæmentaria_, Latr., (_N. carminans_, Latr.), has
a bifid point to the prolongation of the palpal bulb, it is clear
that the present species is distinct from that of Latreille.
M. Simon describes this palpal bulb as having its extreme point
"simple et plus effilée" (_i.e._ more slender than in the preceding
species he has described _N. meridionalis_). That the examples now
before me, agreeing exactly with this description, are not the males
of the species above described by myself as _N. cæmentaria_, Latr.,
from numerous females found at Montpellier, appears to me clear,
not only because I assume that of the true _N. cæmentaria_, Latr.,
males will be found to have the point of the palpal bulb bifid, but
because the position of the eyes is markedly different in M. Simon's
Pyrenean males and the Montpellier females. In the latter the eyes
of the front row are separated from each other by equal intervals,
in the former the interval between those of the central pair is
very perceptibly greater than that between each and the lateral of
the same row nearest to it. The interval also between each of the
fore-central eyes and the hind-central on its side is proportionally
much less.
It appears therefore necessary to characterize _N. cæmentaria_ (Sim.
l.c.) by some other name, for if eventually it should be found that
Latreille has erred in _N. carminans_ (with the _bifid point_ to the
palpal bulb) being the male of his _N. cæmentaria_, and that the
Montpellier species has a male with a _simple point_ to this part,
even then the present spider cannot retain its name (_cæmentaria_),
being distinct from the females found at Montpellier.
It is possible, of course, that the present species may hereafter
be found, perhaps abundantly, at Montpellier; in that case it
will have to be decided which of the two is most likely to be the
species described by Latreille. In that eventuality it seems to me
that the spider, above described from Montpellier, would be more
probably Latreille's species, for one of its specific characters is
a tolerably distinct and bold series of, not more than, five dark
angular bars along the middle of the upper side of the abdomen,
agreeing exactly with Dugès' figures in the _Règne Animal_ of Cuvier,
quoted above (p. 271); while in M. Simon's Pyrenean spider, the
abdominal pattern of the female described by him, does not agree
with this: "il est orné d'une fine ligne noire longitudinale, un peu
ondulée, présentant de nombreuses ramifications, s'étendant sur les
parties latérales" (l.c. p. 26). The males before me accord with
this description, though (as M. Simon also remarks) the "série de
fins accents bruns transverses" is "peu visibles et souvent effacés"
(l.c., p. 25); in one example this pattern is fairly distinct, in the
other it is scarcely recognisable.
The present is a larger spider than _N. incerta_ (the male found by
M. Simon at Digne); it is also less distinctly marked both on the
cephalothorax and abdomen. The position of the eyes is different,
and so also is the palpal bulb; in that species the spine describes
a simple curve with a strong outward direction; in the present it
is slightly but perceptibly _sinuous_, and its general direction is
_parallel to the radial joint of the palpus_; the spines also at the
upper fore extremity of the radial joint are 5-6 in number instead of
three. The outer side of the genual joint of each of the legs of the
third pair has three spines; that on the left side, however, of one
example, has four. The palpal bulb also appears to be proportionally
smaller than that of _N. dubia_, or of _N. Manderstjernæ_, Auss. (_N.
meridionalis_, Cambr.)
Another difference may here be noted between the present species and
the Montpellier _cæmentaria_. M. Simon (_in lit._) separates his _N.
cæmentaria_ from all others by the length of the patella and tibia
(genual and tibial joints) of the fourth pair of legs, exceeding in
length that of the cephalothorax and falces.
This character has not been found to exist in several females of the
Montpellier species, minutely measured by Mr. Moggridge; in them the
length of the cephalothorax and falces were found to exceed that of
the genual and tibial joints of the fourth pair of legs, by from
1-1/2 to 2 mm.
In regard to the relative length of the legs of the present species
this was 4, 1, 2, 3 in the one example examined, and 4, 1, 2-3 in the
other, both being males.