The adult male of Ct. Moggridgii above described, was found behind the stones of an old wall at Mentone, but not in any kind of nest.
Nest-making, and excavating for that purpose, is, probably, no part of the work of the adult males in this and other allied genera, and hence we can see a reason for differences in the development of the caput, and the denticulation of the falces. The usual habitat of the females and their nests is in damp and shady spots, whereas Ct. Sauvagii constructs its nests in dry exposed banks.
Habitat. Mentone and San Remo.
Cteniza Californica, sp. n., [Plate XV], fig. B, p. 198.
Adult female; length very nearly 14 lines; length of the cephalothorax, 51/2; greatest breadth of ditto, 5; breadth of fore part of caput, 4 lines; length of caput rather over 3 lines.
The cephalothorax of this spider is rather broader in proportion to its length than that of Ct. Sauvagii, Walck., Sim. = Ct. fodiens, Walck. The convexity, or elevation, of the caput is also less, but that of the thorax is greater, so that (when looked at in profile) the profile line of the two forms a tolerably even and continuous slope, interrupted only by the thoracic fovea; the profile, however, of the occiput is curved.
The thoracic fovea, or junctional indentation, is strong, deep, and semilunar in form, the horns of the crescent pointing forwards; the other normal indentations are well marked, but those which divide the caput from the first thoracic segment do not unite with the extremities of the junctional fovea, being in this respect unlike Ct. Moggridgii, but more like Ct. Sauvagii. The clypeus, although transversely impressed, yet slopes forward more gradually than in either of those species, its breadth is about equal to that of the ocular area, or amounts to half that of the facial space. The colour of the cephalothorax, taken from the specimen preserved in spirit of wine, is a deep reddish-yellow brown, gradually getting paler towards the margins. When alive, I understand that the general colour of the whole spider was a dark blackish chocolate brown, the legs and cephalothorax being darker than the abdomen; there are a few prominent bristly hairs in the medial line both before and behind the ocular area.
The eyes form a narrow transverse oblong figure, its length being about two and a half times its width, and its fore side is a little the shortest; the fore-lateral eyes are large and oval, and by far the largest of the eight; the rest do not differ much in size, though perhaps the hind laterals, which are also oval, are a little the largest; the longest diameter of these, however, is less than half the longest diameter of the fore laterals. The interval between the fore and hind laterals is small, only equal to the shortest diameter of the hind lateral; and this interval is nearly double that which separates each hind lateral and the hind central nearest to it. The hind laterals and hind centrals form an almost perfectly straight line, the former being very slightly indeed within the straight line of the former; the intervals which separate the fore centrals from each other, and each of them from the fore lateral on its side, are as nearly as possible equal, though very slightly, if at all, less than that which separates each of them from the hind central on its side: the interval which separates the fore laterals is double the length of the longest diameter of one of them.
The legs are short and very strong; they are like the cephalothorax in colour, but paler underneath the femora; this joint in the third pair is proportionally much stronger than in the other legs; all are furnished with hairs, bristles, and spines, a group of erect bristles among the rest occupies the fore part of the upper side of the metatarsi of the first and second pairs; strong spines of different lengths are thickly placed beneath and on the lower part of the sides of the tibiæ tarsi and metatarsi of the first and second pairs. On the tarsi and metatarsi of the third and fourth pairs similar spines are distributed more uniformly over the whole surface of the joints, and on the genual joint of the 3rd pair there is one short strong spine near its extremity on the outer side, those on the tibiæ both of the third and fourth pairs being confined to a few on the outer side, and towards the lower side only. Each tarsus terminates with three claws, of which the two superior ones have a single strong tooth towards the base on the lower side.
The palpi are rather long, strong, and similar in colour to the legs. They are furnished with hairs, bristles, and spines; of the latter the radial and digital joints have some short and strong ones, pretty thickly grouped along both their outer and inner sides; the digital joint ends with a single untoothed claw.