336 Mr. J. Blackwall on the Structure, Functions, (Economy, 



Genus Textrix, Sund. 

 82. Textrix lycosina. 



Textrix lycosina, Sund. Consp. Arachn. p. 19; Koch, Uebers. des 

 Arachn. Syst. erstes Heft, p. 14 ; Die Arachn. B. viii. p. 46. 

 tab. 266. fig. 623, 624. 



agilis, Blackw. Lond. and Edinb. Phil. Mag. Third Series, 



vol. hi. p. 109 ; Research, in Zool. p. 348. pi. 3. fig. 1, 2. 



Agelena lycosina, Sund. Vet. Acad. Handl. 1831, p. 130. 



Tegenaria lycosina, Walck. Hist. Nat. des Insect. Apt. t. ii. p. 15. 



Titulus 20, Lister, Hist. Animal. Angl. De Aran. p. 67. tab. 1 . fig. 20. 



Professor Sundevall was the first who proposed to institute 

 with this species the genus Textrix, which he defined in his 

 ' Conspectus Arachnidum/ published in 1833 ; a like proposition, 

 made by myself in the autumn of the same year, was announced 

 in the i London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine ; } and it 

 is a remarkable circumstance, as the Professor justly observes in 

 a private communication of great interest with which he favoured 

 me, " that we have applied the generic name Textrix to the same 

 animal without knowing anything of the coincidence." 



I gladly avail myself of this opportunity to acknowledge the 

 obligation I am under to the Rev. Morgan Morgan, Rector of 

 Conway, for his great kindness in obtaining for me, through the 

 medium of his friends in Sweden, important information on the 

 subject of arachnology most liberally imparted by Professor Sun- 

 devall. 



Textrix lycosina, which has a relation of analogy with the 

 Lycosidce by the disposition and relative size of its eyes, is widely 

 distributed in Great Britain, most commonly occupying crevices 

 in rocks, stone walls, and the bark of old trees; its superior 

 spinners are triarticulate, having the spinning-tubes arranged on 

 the under side of the elongated terminal joint, and are employed 

 in the fabrication of its snare, which consists of a sheet of web 

 supported both above and below by fine lines intersecting one 

 another at various angles, and attached to it and to adjacent ob- 

 jects by their extremities; a cylindrical tube in connexion with 

 the snare usually extends to the spider's retreat. The sexes pair 

 in June, and in the following month the female deposits between 

 50 and 60 spherical eggs of a pale yellow colour, not adherent 

 among themselves, in a lenticular cocoon of white silk of a fine 

 but compact texture, measuring ^th of an inch in diameter ; it 

 is attached to stones by a small covering of white web, on the 

 exterior surface of which particles of soil and other materials are 

 frequently distributed. 



This spider, with a change of integument, is capable of re- 

 producing the legs, palpi, and terminal joint of the superior 

 spinners after they have been removed by amputation. 



