Supplement to Harvesting Ants and Trap-Door SpidersMoggridge, John Traherne
Science
Supplement to Harvesting Ants and Trap-Door Spiders
Moggridge, John Traherne
Ants; Trap-door spiders
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.
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