observed in regard to the particular type or form of the nest of _N.
dubia_.
_Habitat._ Pyrenees and Spanish mountain regions.
Nemesia Manderstjernæ, Plate XX., fig. B, C, p. 254.
Syn. _Nemesia Manderstjernæ_, Auss. ♂, _Beitr. zur Kenntn. der
Arachn. Fam. der Territelariæ_, p. 54.
_Nemesia meridionalis_, Cambr. (female), _Harvesting Ants and
Trap-door Spiders_, by J. T. Moggridge, p. 101. Plates IX. X. XI.
Adult male, length 6-1/4 to 7-1/2 lines.
Since the publication of the description of _N. meridionalis_,
Cambr. (♀ l.c. _supra_), I have had an opportunity of examining an
adult example of each sex of a _Nemesia_, described about the same
time by M. Eugène Simon as _N. meridionalis_, Costa, in _Aranéides
nouv. ou peu connus du Midi de l'Europe_, p. 21 (separate copy).
The species described by M. Simon was found by himself abundantly
in Corsica. He also gives Italy and Provence as localities, but the
former of these two is, I conclude, given as being _Costa's_ locality
for the spider described by this latter author in _Fauna d. Regn.
Napl. Arachn._, p. 14; the other locality (Provence) would seem to
have been doubtfully given. On careful examination of the Corsican
examples (male and female), and on comparing them with the male and
female of _N. meridionalis_, Cambr., as well as the description and
figure given by Costa, I feel no doubt but that M. Simon is right in
according to the Corsican species M. Costa's name--_meridionalis_. It
agrees, I think, decidedly better, on the whole, with Costa's figure
and description than the species to which (l.c.) I had allotted the
specific name _meridionalis_ conferred by that author. Nor had I any
hesitation in accepting the determination made by M. Simon, in _Bull.
Ent. Soc. Fr._, 1873, sér. v. tom. 3, c.; that my _N. meridionalis_
♀ is the female of _N. Manderstjernæ_, Auss., the more especially
as since the publication of my description I have received from the
same locality (Mentone) not only the male of the spider described by
myself (l.c.), but also the type of M. Ausserer's description of _N.
Manderstjernæ_ (found at Nice), and believe these to be identical in
species. There is, indeed, a difference in the, apparent, relative
positions and colour of the eyes of the two spiders, but no more than
may be well accounted for by the condition of M. Ausserer's type
(most kindly lent to me for examination by its owner, Dr. Ludwig
Koch); this example is much shrunken, having the appearance of having
been allowed to get dry and then to have been again immersed in
spirit. This would (I have frequently found it so in other spiders)
cause even the hard integument of the cephalothorax to contract,
and so cause the eyes to shrink up together into a closer group, as
well as to sink down into the cuticle, making some of them appear
smaller than they really are. Alternate drying and wetting again in
spirit would also account for the yellowish brown colour of the eyes,
whereas in the male of the Mentone spider the eyes of the hinder
row are pearly grey, and of the front row dark grey. Beyond these
differences I can find no distinction between them.
The male of the present species is very nearly allied to both _N.
incerta_ (p. 276) from the Pyrenees, and _N. dubia_ (p. 280) from
Digne, of both of which, as remarked (l.c.), the male sex alone
is known to me; it is, however, larger than either, more richly
coloured, and more distinctly marked. In all three species the
elongated portion of the palpal bulb has a simple point, but in
the present spider it is not drawn out so finely and gradually:
some portion of its extremity being, though very fine yet really,
cylindrical, and not tapering off into a hair-like termination; the
general direction of the palpal bulb is parallel with the radial
joint, but the point which is equally curved is directed outwards
and a little downwards; the radial joint has four spines at the
fore extremity on the upper side (in one of the examples there were
however seven on the radial joint of the right palpus), and the
genual joint of each leg of the third pair, in both examples from
Mentone as well as in M. Ausserer's example from Nice, has three
spines on its outer side. This character was not remarked upon in
the description of _N. meridionalis_ ♀ (Cambr. l.c.). It is not
invariable in a long series of female examples; occasionally one
is found with four spines on one of these genual joints, in others
there is occasionally but one spine and sometimes (but rarely)
none; perhaps in this case broken off? I am inclined to attach
some importance as a specific character to the number, presence,
or absence of these spines on the outer side of the genual joint
of the third pair of legs; not that it is an invariable character,
few, if any, specific characters are absolute and invariable, nor
that it is of more importance than the armature of other portions
of the different legs, but as being more easily observed and less
liable to injury than the larger and more numerous spines on other
parts. Equally useful in specific determination are the spines at the
fore-extremity on the upper side of the radial joint of the palpus.
This, however, applies only to the male, whereas the character
derived from the spines on the genual joints of the third pair of
legs applies to both sexes.
Another character by which the present species (♀) may be
distinguished from _N. dubia_ (_N. cæmentaria_, Sim.) is that the
former is rather narrower at the fore-extremity of the caput, which
is also less elevated, being almost equally level with the thorax.
The description of the female given (l.c. _supra_) needs but little
addition. It may be noticed, however, that the central longitudinal
tapering orange band on the caput is faintly continued to the extreme
hinder margin of the thorax, and the thoracic fovea is rather sharply
curved. The intervals between the eyes is the same as in those of _N.
Moggridgii_, though their absolute size in some examples appeared to
be smaller. In both sexes there are several small, black, tooth-like,
tubercular spines on the inner side of the base of each maxilla, but
none at the apex of the labium.
The colour of the _cephalothorax_ in the male is bright-reddish
orange-yellow; a large portion of the sides of the caput, and the
ocular area also, is black-brown; the middle of the thorax is
distinctly marked with black-brown lines radiating to the thoracic
fovea.
Other, less deep, brown markings are mixed with these radiating
lines; there are a few prominent bristles in front of the ocular
area, a single longitudinal line of erect bristles along the middle
of the orange band from the eyes to the thoracic fovea, and the whole
cephalothorax is more or less clothed with greyish-yellow adpressed
hairs.
The _falces_ are of a deep blackish red-brown colour, longitudinally
striped with yellow-greyish hairs mixed with dark bristles; and there
are some strong spines at the fore extremity on the inner side.
The _abdomen_ is oval, tolerably convex above, of a dull, pale,
straw colour, suffused with brown at its fore extremity, whence an
indistinct central longitudinal band tapers to a point rather more
than half way to the spinners; on either side of this band are some
oblique, lateral, brown lines, which become broken chevrons, between
the termination of the central band and the spinners. The sides are
obscurely and irregularly marked with brown, and the under side is
of a uniform dull straw-yellow; the abdomen is clothed thickly with
mixed yellow-grey and dark hairs; the upper side is furnished also
with strong, nearly erect bristly black ones.
Each _tarsus_ terminates with three claws; those of the superior pair
are pectinated beneath, but the number of teeth appears to vary in
the different legs, from six to eight. The tibial joint of the first
pair is of the same character as that in the males of other species:
it has a strong black curved spine directed inwards from the fore
extremity of the under side, and a short bluntish-conical, but very
distinct prominence at the same extremity on the inner side, not far
from the base of the curved spine, Plate XX., fig. B 4 and C; the
colour of the legs is yellow, tinged with orange, the upper sides of
the femora being nearly black; the palpi are similar in colour, the
upper side of the humeral joints being suffused with a blackish hue.
The relative length of the legs is not constant; in one example it
was 4, 3, 1, 2, in the other 4, 1, 2, 3, 2 and 3 being very nearly
equal. Similar variations are also found in the legs of the female.
In regard to the nest of this species, researches made subsequently
to the publication of _Harvesting Ants and Trap-door Spiders_
have proved it to be of rather a different form from that there
represented; thus in the main tube, just before the inner door is
reached, there is a descending branch running off from the main
tube at the same angle as the ascending branch, but in an opposite
direction; in the older and larger nests the descending branch
becomes choked with débris; it is more distinct in the nests of the
younger spiders, and is always more or less distinctly traceable.
_N.B._--In the above details there have been only one or two special
distinctions observed between the two male examples examined. It
should however be noted that in one (the one captured behind a stone
wall) the ocular area was slightly narrower in proportion to its
length, and the interval between the eyes of each lateral pair rather
less.
_Habitat._ San Remo, Bordighera, Mentone, Cannes, and Hyères.
Nemesia Meridionalis, Plate XVII., fig. B, p. 215.
Syn. _Nemesia meridionalis_, Costa, _Fauna d. Regn. Napl. Arachn._,
p. 14, Pl. I., figs. 2, 3.
---- ---- Simon, _Aranéides nouv. ou peu connus du Midi de l'
Europe_, Mém. Liège, 1873 (separate copy), p. 21.
Adult male, length 6-3/4 lines (14 mm.), female adult, length 10-1/2
lines (22 mm.).
The examination of an adult example of each sex of this spider
received from M. Simon, by whom they were found in Corsica, leads
me to conclude that we have here the true _N. meridionalis_, Costa,
as certainly at least as it is possible at present to identify the
species by the insufficient description and figures given by this
author.
The _eyes_ appear to be less closely massed together than in _N.
Manderstjernæ_, but in other respects no particularly tangible
difference is to be noted; the interval however between the eyes of
each lateral pair is perhaps rather greater. Between the male and the
female of the present species there is a decided difference in the
relative position of the eyes. In the female the fore-centrals are
nearer together than each is to the fore-lateral on its side, while
in the male, the fore-centrals are wider apart than each is from its
fore-lateral. I have also noted a similar difference in regard to _N.
Manderstjernæ_. The fore-centrals are also smaller in the female than
in the male.
The two species, although bearing such great general similarity to
each other, may be at once distinguished by several very tangible
differences. First in regard to the _male_. The _cephalothorax_ of
_N. meridionalis_ has the whole caput of an almost uniform dark brown
colour, two slender yellow lines beginning, one a little way behind
each lateral pair of eyes, and converging rather quickly towards each
other, run on nearly parallel, but in close proximity together to
the thoracic fovea. The centre of the thorax is also dark brown, the
brown portion formed by radiating confluent patches, rather than by
distinct lines as in _Manderstjernæ_. The curve of the thoracic fovea
is sharp, in fact more in the form of a straight line with the ends
bent down.
The _cephalothorax_ is of nearly one uniform level and convexity
above; the caput being a little more rounded than the thorax; the
eye eminence seemed to be rather higher than in _N. Manderstjernæ_,
and the _clypeus_, which is steepish, is impressed in the middle and
exceeds in height half that of the facial space; on the lower margin
of the _clypeus_ is a transverse row of several strong prominent
bristles. There were no bristles behind the eyes, and no appearance
of any having been broken off there (the female, however, has a
single longitudinal row on the caput). The lateral and hinder margins
of the cephalothorax, however, are, in the male (but not in the
female) clothed with black bristles and bristly hairs.
The _palpi_ are longer than in _Manderstjernæ_. The radial joints
have, at the upper fore extremity of each, five spines, _three_ in
front in a transverse line, and _two_ immediately behind them. The
palpal bulb is more globular, and the spiny production, which is not
very long, springs from it more suddenly, and is _strongly sinuous_,
its sharp tapering point directed outwards. The strong sinuosity of
this part distinguishes it at once both from _N. Manderstjernæ_ and
all other known European males with a simple point to the palpal
organs.
The _legs_ are longish and strong; their relative length 4-1, 3, 2
(male); 4-1, 2, 3 (female); they are furnished with hairs, bristles,
and spines. These do not appear to call for special notice, except
that each genual joint of those of the third pair has two spines on
its outer side in both sexes.
The superior tarsal claws are denticulated, but the denticulations
differ in number and strength, not only in the two sexes and in the
different legs, but in some instances in the two superior claws of
the same leg. The denticulations seemed to be more numerous in the
female than in the male.
The _abdomen_ is elongate oval, and of a straw yellow colour. In
the _male_ the fore part of the upper side is irregularly black
brown, followed by an irregular somewhat broken longitudinal central
bar, and some broken oblique lines and portions of chevrons. In
the _female_ the fore part is less densely blackish, the central
longitudinal line is obscure, but the oblique lateral lines are more
distinct and less broken, but none are quite united so as to form
chevrons, though the two or three nearest to the spinners almost do
so.
The upper side is furnished with numerous strong nearly erect black
bristles.
The _labium_ has a row, of bristles only, at its apex.
The markings of the cephalothorax in the female are very nearly like
those of that sex in _N. Manderstjernæ_; the tapering orange yellow
band, however, behind the eyes appears to be rather bolder, as in
that species this band also is faintly traceable quite to the hinder
thoracic margin. The inner corner of the base of the maxillæ, in both
sexes, has several minute tooth-like black spines.
The form of the cephalothorax in the female differs from that of
the male; in the latter sex (male) it is narrower before and rather
rounded behind; in the former sex (female) it is broadest before and
more distinctly hollow-truncate behind; the caput is also rounder and
more elevated. In the female the tarsi and metatarsi of the two first
pairs of legs have close set brush-like hairs beneath; these are
wanting in the two hinder pairs, and also almost entirely wanting on
the two first pairs in the male.
Various other characters, both peculiar and differential, are noted
in regard to this species by M. Simon (l.c.). It is to be regretted
that this painstaking observer did not note more exactly the form and
type of its nest; from his description of it, however, it appears to
be branched, but whether the door is of the wafer or cork type, or
whether it has an inner door or not, is not mentioned.
_Habitat._ Corsica.
Nemesia Congener, sp. n., Plate XVIII., fig. A, p. 225.
Adult female, length 9 lines (19 mm.).
In general appearance, colours, and markings this spider bears
great resemblance to _N. cæmentaria_. The eyes, however, appeared
to be smaller, and the hind-centrals also smaller in proportion to
the rest. The pale margins of the cephalothorax are in the present
species generally confined to some rather indistinct pale patches.
The central orange band from the eyes to the thoracic fovea is,
especially in immature examples, often only a simple tapering line;
in others it is larger, and often composed of three converging narrow
orange bands, which form, in some examples, a broad central tapering
band, marked with two longitudinal dark lines. The thoracic fovea is
curved, but not sharply.
The _abdomen_ is broadish oval, of a dull clay colour, marked with
dark brown lines, and markings on the sides and upper side. In
some examples these form a longitudinal central series of curved
or slightly angular lines; in others but little trace of regular
chevrons can be seen.
In the present spider there is also a longitudinal pale yellowish
patch on the inner upper margin of the falces near their base; they
are furnished with hairs in longitudinal bands, and spines, like
others of the genus.
The _legs_ are moderately long, strong, and furnished with hairs and
bristles, and, sparingly, with spines. The genual joints of the third
pair have some spines on the outer side, varying from one to three in
different examples. The tarsi and metatarsi of the first and second
pairs, as well as the radial and digital joints of the palpi, have
strong lateral brush-like fringes of close-set sooty black hairs. The
superior pair of tarsal claws are denticulated, but not uniformly
either in strength, number, or position.
No doubt this will prove a very troublesome spider to distinguish
with certainty from _N. cæmentaria_, but the almost constant presence
of a spine or spines on the outer face of the genual joint of the
third pair of legs seems to be a good distinguishing character; in
no one example out of nine carefully examined could I detect their
absence altogether, while a single spine even on _N. cæmentaria_ is
rare.
In the present species five examples had three spines on each of
these joints; two had two spines on each; one had a single spine on
each; another had one on one side, two on the other.
The nest, however, is very characteristic and peculiar. It is of the
wafer-lid type, and so cannot, from even the outside, be mistaken
for that of _N. cæmentaria_, which is of the cork-lid type; it is,
moreover, branched below, while that of _N. cæmentaria_ is a single
unbranched tube. It has also an inside door, or valve, of very
remarkable construction, having two perfect cork-like faces, securely
shutting off either the branch, or the main tube just above the
branch, at pleasure. By this latter character it is distinguished
also from the tube of _N. Manderstjernæ_, as well as by the absence
of a second short branch or cavity, lately discovered in the nest
of this last spider. Examples of this spider were found, not
unfrequently, but invariably in such nests as that above described,
at Hyères.
The female sex only has yet been met with.
_Habitat._ Hyères.
Nemesia Suffusa, sp. n., Plate XVII., fig. A, p. 215.
Immature female, length 7-1/2 lines (15-1/2 mm.).
Although no example was quite adult, this species may readily be
distinguished from all others yet known to me, by its more elongated
form, particularly the cylindrico-ovate form of the abdomen.
The _cephalothorax_ is oval, broadest towards its posterior
extremity, where it is rounded, the fore-margin being truncated; the
caput is well rounded and convex, and the thorax perhaps more so
than in other species, so that when looked at in profile there is a
considerable dip or hollow at the thoracic fovea; this fovea forms a
slight curve. Except that the lateral margins are rather broadly pale
towards the hinder part (though the pale portion is ill-defined),
the whole of the cephalothorax is of a uniform dull yellowish-brown
colour; the extreme lateral margin is marked by a black line, and
in one or two examples there was an indistinct yellowish central
longitudinal line from the eyes to the thoracic junction, having a
single row of prominent bristles upon it. The whole surface of the
cephalothorax is fairly clothed with dusky yellowish-grey adpressed
hairs: the ordinary grooves and indentations are well marked.
The _eyes_ are on the usual eye eminence, which is perhaps rather
more elevated than ordinary, and its summit black; their position
is ordinary. It may, however, be noticed that the fore-centrals are
placed more forward than in most of the other known species; the
fore-centrals are about _equally_ separated from each other, and
from the fore-laterals nearest to each respectively; they are also
separated from the hind-central nearest to each, by an interval
not differing much from that between each other; the hind-centrals
are distinctly oval, or rather somewhat semilunar in form, smallest
of the eight (except in one example, when they were almost, if not
quite, as large as the fore-centrals), and at their hindermost point
very near, but not quite contiguous, to the hind-laterals. The eyes
of each lateral pair (of which the hinder is very nearly equal in
size to the fore one), are very near, but not quite contiguous, to
each other; the interval between them is narrower than that between
the corresponding eyes in almost any other yet described species.
The _legs_ are neither long nor very strong; their relative length is
4, 1, 2, 3, though between 2 and 3 there is in different examples the
same variation observed in other species; sometimes they are equal,
and sometimes one, and then the other, very slightly the longest:
their colour is pale yellowish, and they are furnished with hairs,
bristles, and spines, but the latter are not numerous, and appeared
to be both longer and slenderer than usual; the genual joints of the
third pair have spines, from one to three on the outer side, for the
most part, three; the superior tarsal claws are pectinated (but not
uniformly on all the legs) beneath their hinder portion.
The _falces_ are strong, and similar in colour to the cephalothorax,
but they do not appear to call for any special remark.
The _maxillæ_ have a few minute tuberculiform black teeth at their
base on the inner side, and, with the _labium_ (which has no hairs at
its apex) and _sternum_, are similar in colour to the legs.
The _abdomen_ is of an elongated, or cylindrico-ovate form, of a
dull drab-yellowish colour, with a central, longitudinal, irregular,
rather chocolate-brown bar on its upper side, and 6 to 7 well-defined
lateral oblique slightly curved lines of the same colour and touching
the central line; between these lines are some other irregular, but
similarly coloured, markings.
The sides are almost immaculate, and the underside quite so; the
spinners are ordinary.
About 10 examples (all immature) were found at Montpellier in
branched tubes closed at the entrance with a wafer-lid. The branch
arises some way below the entrance and runs up to the surface at an
acute angle with the main tube; there is no lower door, and thus this
tube forms the type of a new form of nest, being branched, with a
wafer-lid, but without a lower door.
This species cannot be confused with _N. cæmentaria_, which is found
abundantly in the same locality; both the general form, colours,
markings, and nest readily distinguish it from that species.
_Habitat._ Montpellier.
Nemesia Simoni, sp. n., Plate XVI., fig. A, p. 211.
Adult female, length rather more than 9-1/4 lines (20 mm.).
This spider is of a proportionally broader and stouter form than
others of the genus _Nemesia_, and the cephalothorax (which is
entirely glabrous and destitute of adpressed hairs) has the caput
more rounded and elevated than in any other species of _Nemesia_
known to me, approaching _Cteniza_ in these respects.
The _cephalothorax_ is oval, truncate, and about equally broad at
each end; the ordinary grooves and indentations are strong; besides
the groove which indicates its union with the thorax, the caput has
an indented or pinched-in appearance towards its hinder part on each
side. Except that this was present in all the examples examined (ten)
it might have been taken to be accidental.