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
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.
It is a matter of regret that nothing, as yet, has been accurately
observed in regard to the particular type or form of the nest of _N.
dubia_.
_Habitat._ Pyrenees and Spanish mountain regions.
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