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 61/4 to 71/2 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 differences I can find no distinction between them.
The male of the present species is very nearly allied to both N. incerta (p. 276) from the Pyrenees, and N. dubia (p. 280) from Digne, of both of which, as remarked (l.c.), the male sex alone is known to me; it is, however, larger than either, more richly coloured, and more distinctly marked. In all three species the elongated portion of the palpal bulb has a simple point, but in the present spider it is not drawn out so finely and gradually: some portion of its extremity being, though very fine yet really, cylindrical, and not tapering off into a hair-like termination; the general direction of the palpal bulb is parallel with the radial joint, but the point which is equally curved is directed outwards and a little downwards; the radial joint has four spines at the fore extremity on the upper side (in one of the examples there were however seven on the radial joint of the right palpus), and the genual joint of each leg of the third pair, in both examples from Mentone as well as in M. Ausserer's example from Nice, has three spines on its outer side. This character was not remarked upon in the description of N. meridionalis ♀ (Cambr. l.c.). It is not invariable in a long series of female examples; occasionally one is found with four spines on one of these genual joints, in others there is occasionally but one spine and sometimes (but rarely) none; perhaps in this case broken off? I am inclined to attach some importance as a specific character to the number, presence, or absence of these spines on the outer side of the genual joint of the third pair of legs; not that it is an invariable character, few, if any, specific characters are absolute and invariable, nor that it is of more importance than the armature of other portions of the different legs, but as being more easily observed and less liable to injury than the larger and more numerous spines on other parts. Equally useful in specific determination are the spines at the fore-extremity on the upper side of the radial joint of the palpus. This, however, applies only to the male, whereas the character derived from the spines on the genual joints of the third pair of legs applies to both sexes.
Another character by which the present species (♀) may be distinguished from N. dubia (N. cæmentaria, Sim.) is that the former is rather narrower at the fore-extremity of the caput, which is also less elevated, being almost equally level with the thorax.
The description of the female given (l.c. supra) needs but little addition. It may be noticed, however, that the central longitudinal tapering orange band on the caput is faintly continued to the extreme hinder margin of the thorax, and the thoracic fovea is rather sharply curved. The intervals between the eyes is the same as in those of N. Moggridgii, though their absolute size in some examples appeared to be smaller. In both sexes there are several small, black, tooth-like, tubercular spines on the inner side of the base of each maxilla, but none at the apex of the labium.
The colour of the cephalothorax in the male is bright-reddish orange-yellow; a large portion of the sides of the caput, and the ocular area also, is black-brown; the middle of the thorax is distinctly marked with black-brown lines radiating to the thoracic fovea.
Other, less deep, brown markings are mixed with these radiating lines; there are a few prominent bristles in front of the ocular area, a single longitudinal line of erect bristles along the middle of the orange band from the eyes to the thoracic fovea, and the whole cephalothorax is more or less clothed with greyish-yellow adpressed hairs.