Habitats. San Remo, Mentone, Cannes, Vaucluse near Avignon, and, according to M. Simon, Digne, Basses Alpes.
Nemesia Moggridgii, sp. n., [Plate XIX], fig. C, p. 229.
Syn. Nemesia Cæmentaria, Cambr., in Harvesting Ants and Trap-door Spiders, (by J. T. Moggridge), p. 93, [Pl. VIII]
This spider is exceedingly closely allied to the foregoing and was thought to be the true N. cæmentaria, Latr., until subsequent researches at Montpellier (the locality where Latreille's types were found) have resulted in the belief that the Montpellier, rather than the Mentone species, is that described by him. At present the females only of the two species are known, and these may readily be distinguished by the pattern on the caput.
In the foregoing (the Montpellier Spider) a broad orange yellow-brown band runs from the ocular area to the thoracic fovea, tapering gradually to that part, where it is truncated, forming a wedge with the point cut off. This wedge-shaped band is charged with two longitudinal, more or less distinct, dark brown irregularly-tapering lines, running throughout its whole length and converging towards each other but not touching.
In the Mentone Spider there are three orange-yellow-brown well-defined bars or longitudinal lines between the ocular area and the thoracic fovea; the central bar tapers and reaches from the eyes to the fovea, the lateral ones never more than two-thirds of the distance from it to the eyes, diverging a little from the central bar as they run forwards. These two lateral bars are not straight, i.e., their margins are more or less notched or roughly angular, forming in some examples a line of a somewhat zigzag or bent character. It may perhaps be observed that when the two dark brown lines which run along the broad orange-yellow-brown band on the caput of the Montpellier spider, are well marked, this also leaves three longitudinal yellow lines, somewhat similar to those just described in the Mentone species, but there is this difference even then (and it is constant throughout a long series of examples), the lateral lines in the Montpellier spider always run through to the eyes, equalling in length the central line, while in the Mentone spider the lateral bars never reach the eyes, always stopping short of the ocular area, by one-half, or nearly so, of their length.
Another distinction which appears constant is the form of the thoracic fovea; in the Montpellier species this forms a slight but uniform curve; in the Mentone spider it is more sharply bent at the apex (or centre of the curve), forming in most examples a bluntish-angular line.
In the eyes there appears to be but little reliable difference; if there be any at all constant, it seems to be that in the present (Mentone) species the fore-laterals are constantly smaller than the hind-laterals, and sometimes smaller than the fore-centrals. A close examination, however, of the relative size and position of the eyes in a series of examples, lowers one's estimation of the absolute value of this character in the determination of the species of Nemesia; still it is a specific character not by any means to be overlooked, though to be used guardedly, and often with great reservation.
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.