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
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
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