The male of the spider here described has not been yet found. A description is given (p. 276) of a male spider, Nemesia incerta (no doubt closely allied), found by M. Eugène Simon at Digne; but reasons will be given why it is not probable that this Digne spider should be, as conjectured by M. Simon, the male of the Montpellier species. Whether the N. carminans (Latr.) is the male of N. cæmentaria (Latr.) or not, is another question, and one surrounded with some obscurity and difficulty. Latreille described N. cæmentaria (female) from Montpellier, and N. carminans (male) from Aix in Provence; the latter being specially characterized by a bifid point to the prolongation of the palpal bulb; L. Dufour appears subsequently to have considered N. carminans, Latr. (male) to be the male of N. cæmentaria, and Latreille appears to have agreed with L. Dufour upon this, vide Walck. Ins. Apt., i. p. 236; but Dufour afterwards (Ann. Gen. Sc. Phys., tom. v. Bruxelles, 1820, p. 103) introduced an element of confusion into the question by describing N. carminans as having the point of the palpal organs simple, "nullement bifid," and throwing out a suggestion that it might be the male of N. Sauvagii, Latr., (= N. pionnière or fodiens, Walck.) Latreille upon this (Vues générales sur les Aranéides, Acad. Roy. des Sc., 1830, pp. 64, 65) explains Dufour's suggestion as an inadvertence, but takes no notice of the difference of the form of the palpal organs as described by him; at the same time however Latreille explains why, probably, Walckenaer "still considers (in his Faune française) N. carminans to be a distinct species." We may conclude from this that Latreille never altered his opinion that his own N. cæmentaria and N. carminans were the two sexes of the same species; and we shall probably rightly agree with Walckenaer that Dufour had another species before him, which he wrongly (l.c.) described as N. carminans.
Subsequently again a male and female spider, evidently of one species, were figured by Dugès to illustrate N. cæmentaria male and female in Cuvier's Règne Animal—Edition in 20 vols. not numbered and without date, published in Paris, "accompagnée de Planches par une réunion de disciples de Cuvier, MM. Audouin, Blanchard, Deshayes, Aleide d'Orbigny, Doyère, Dugès, Duvernoy, Laurillard, Milne Edwards, Roulin, et Valenciennes." Of these figures, that of the male has the point of the palpal organs distinctly bifid, and the nest figured is of the cork-lid type.
On the whole it may be concluded that the male of the true N. cæmentaria, Latr., will be found to have the bifid point to the palpal organs, but the question cannot be considered settled until further researches at Montpellier and Aix (in Provence) shall have furnished males of the N. cæmentaria now described, and females of the bifid pointed male—N. carminans, Latr.—for of course it is possible that Latreille's first views of the distinctness of cæmentaria and carminans may be the correct ones.
The characters of the species now described accord so well with the figures of the female in Dugès' plate (above mentioned) that little doubt can be entertained of their identity, and if so there would seem to be little doubt also, but that further research at Montpellier will reveal a male similar to the male figured by Dugès.
Habitat. Montpellier, France.
Syn. Nemesia Eleanora, Cambr., male and female, in Harvesting Ants and Trap-door Spiders, by J. T. Moggridge, p. 180, [Pl. XII] and woodcuts, [p. 109].
Nemesia Alpigrada (Simon) male, Aranéides nouv. ou peu connus du Midi de l'Europe, 2e Mémoire. Liège, 1873, 2e sér. t. v. p. 27 (separate copy.).
There is but little to add to the descriptions given (l.c. supra). It must however be noted that the spines on the outer side of the genual joints of the third pair of legs, then supposed to be a characteristic of the present species only, are now found to exist in several others, with some small exceptions in regard to number, and also in respect to strict uniformity, on both legs of the same individual. In N. cæmentaria (p. 264), however, there is rarely found even a single spine on either of these joints; and not one out of ten examples of another species, N. Simoni (p. 297), had even one of these spines.
Shortly after the publication of Harvesting Ants and Trap-door Spiders the male of this species was described by M. Simon (l.c.) from two examples taken at Vaucluse near Avignon.