PULMONARI^E. 181 



The body is five lines in length, of a fine chesnut colour; abdo- 

 men black; five small, round, yellowish spots above, four of 

 which are arranged transversely in pairs, and the last or fifth 

 posterior; legs hairy. It is evident from the plates of the great 

 work on Egypt, that M. Savigny found it in that country, and 

 proposed forming anew genus with it. Count Dejean brought 

 it from Dalmatia; and Schreiber, director of the Imperial Mu- 

 seum of Vienna, has sent me specimens captured in the same 

 country. M. Dufour also found it in the mountains of Nar- 

 bonne, in the Pyrennees and among the rocks of Catalonia. To 

 this latter naturalist we are indebted not only for our know- 

 ledge of the external characters of this spider, but for many 

 curious observations relative to its habits. " She constructs," 

 says he, " a shell resembling a calotte or patella an inch in 

 diameter, on the under surface of large stones or in the fissures 

 of rocks. Its contour presents seven or eight emarginations, 

 the angles of which are alone attached to the stone by silken 

 fasciculi, the margin being free. This singular tent is admira- 

 bly woven. The exterior resembles the very finest taffeta, 

 formed, according to the age of the animal, of a greater or less 

 number of layers. Thus, when the young Uroctea first com- 

 mences her establishment, she merely forms two webs between 

 which she seeks for shelter. Subsequently, and I believe at 

 each change of tegument, she adds a certain number of layers. 

 Finally, when the nuptial season has arrived, she lines an apart- 

 ment with a softer and more downy material which is to en- 

 close the sac of eggs and young ones. Although the exterior 

 shell is more or less soiled by foreign bodies which serve to 

 conceal it, the chamber of the industrious architect is always 

 extremely neat and clean. There are four, five, or six egg- 

 pouches or sacculi in each domicil; they are lenticular, more 

 than four lines in diameter, and formed of a snow-white taffeta 

 lined with the softest down. The ova are not produced till the 

 latter end of December or the beginning of January; the young 

 are to be protected from the rigour of winter and the incursions 

 of enemies -all is prepared; the receptacle of this precious de- 

 posit is separated from the web that adheres to the stone by 

 soft down, and from the external calotte by the various layers I 

 have mentioned. Some of the emarginations in the edge of the 

 pavilion are completely closed by the continuity of the web, 

 the edges of the remainder are merely laid on each other, so 

 that by raising them up, the animal can issue from its tent or 

 enter it, at pleasure. When the Uroctea leaves her habitation 

 for the chase, she has nothing to fear, she only possesses the 



