Superfamily Argiopoidea 



it to appear like a little, triangular scale, shed by some bud of a 

 hemlock, and caught in the web. 



The egg-sac is a beautiful vase-shaped object; and is sus- 

 pended by a thread in the web (Fig. 329). When first made it is 

 white, but later it changes to a brown colour. On several occa- 

 sions we have found two egg-sacs in a single independent web, 

 one of which was brown and the other white; indicating that the 

 spider had lived in this web a considerable time, and had made 

 a second egg-sac. The egg-sacs are made in mid-summer, and 

 the spiderlings emerge in late summer or early autumn. 



Argyrodes nephilce (A. neph'i-ke). — This resident of the South 

 resembles the preceding species in size, and in having a triangular 

 abdomen (Fig. 330); but differs strikingly in appearance, owing 

 to the fact that a large part of the upper portion of the abdomen 



is silver-white; so that it appears like 

 a drop of quicksilver. The cephalo- 

 thorax is dark brown or black, and 

 the lower side of the abdomen is 

 black; there is also a black stripe 

 on the middle line of the abdomen 

 above. 



In the female the tip of the 

 abdomen is rounded, not split; and 

 the clypeus is nearly vertical. 



The head of the male bears 

 two horns, as in the preceding species; but in this species the 

 two pairs of median eyes are borne by the hinder horn. (Fig. 33 1 .) 

 Like A. trigonum this spider sometimes leads an independent 

 existence and sometimes lives as a commensal in the webs of 

 larger spiders, and especially in the webs of large orb-weaving 

 species. The specific name was suggested by the fact that it 

 sometimes lives in the webs of Nephila. It is found in the 

 South and is distributed from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 



Genus SPINTHARUS (Spin-tha'rus) 



This genus can be distinguished from all other comb-footed 

 spiders that occur in our fauna by the arrangement of the eyes. 

 The lateral eyes of each side are contiguous, as is the case with 

 most members of the family, but the posterior median eyes are 



Fig. 331. ARGYRODES NEPHILA, 

 HEAD OF MALE 



340 



