Mr. J. Blackwall on some new species 0/ Araneidea. 181 



their extremities, which are greatly enlarged, black blotches of an 

 irregular figure alternate ; the sides are yellowish brown thickly 

 spotted with black ; the middle of the under part, which is yel- 

 lowish brown, is comprised between two obscure bands, composed 

 of numerous black spots, which meet at the spinners. The su- 

 perior spinners are long, hairy, triarticulate, and have the spin- 

 ning tubes disposed on the under side of the terminal joint, which 

 tapers to its extremity and is reddish brown ; the second joint is 

 black. Plates of the spiracles dull yellow. This species and some 

 others of the same family, Tegenaria domestical Tegenaria civilis, 

 and Agelena labyrinthica, for example, have the body and limbs 

 supplied with numerous compound sessile hairs. Similar hairs 

 occur also on Dolomedes miy^abilis, belonging to the Lycosidce. 



The male is smaller, slenderer, paler, and less distinctly marked 

 than the female, and the relative length of its legs is different, 

 the first pair being longer than the fourth ; their absolute length 

 also is greater, an anterior one measuring 1 inch and ^§ths. The 

 palpi are yellowish brown, with the exception of the radial and 

 digital joints, which are reddish brown; the radial joint is longer 

 than the cubital and has two apophyses at its extremity, one large, 

 black and obtuse, situated on the outer side, the other smaller, 

 red-brown and acute, situated on the under side ; the digital joint 

 is of an elongated pyriform figure pointed at the extremity ; it is 

 convex and hairy externally, concave within, at the upper part 

 only, comprising the palpal organs, which are moderately deve- 

 loped, prominent, rather complicated in structure, with a strong, 

 black, pointed process projecting boldly from the upper part, a 

 prominent scaly process at the inner side of the upper part, and 

 a long, slender, curved black spine originating near the extremity 

 on the inner side, and directed obliquely upwards towards the 

 outer side ; their colour is red-brown. 



Living specimens of Tegenaria sceva, which ranks among our 

 largest British spiders, were obligingly presented to me in the 

 autumn of 1843 by Miss Gertrude Buller Elphinstone, of East 

 Lodge, Enfield, Middlesex, who captured them in the immediate 

 neighbourhood in which she resides. In reply to some inquiries 

 relative to the habits of this fine species. Miss Elphinstone informs 

 me that it frequents the interior of buildings ; and I have ascer- 

 tained, from observations made on individuals in a state of cap- 

 tivity, that it constructs a horizontal sheet of web of a compact 

 texture, with a short tube at one of its margins serving the spider 

 for a retreat. 



Baron Walckenaer, in the Supplement to the second volume of 

 his ' Histoire Naturelle des Insectes Apteres,' p. 407, ascribes to 

 M. Duges the discovery of the true structure and function of the 

 elongated superior spinners of certain spiders denominated anal 



