148 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



apex ; this is flanked on either side Iiy well shaded margins of dark color. This pattern 

 shows much more distinctly on some specimens tlian others and tends to be oliliterated 

 with advancing age. (See Plate II., Fig. 4.) The venter has a wide, l)lack subtriangular patch 

 surrounded Ijy a broad yellow margin, presenting the appearance of a military chajieau, 

 sometimes interrupted, leaving but two large circular spots on either side. The spinnerets 

 are bright orange or brown with an interrupted girdle of yellow, one large patch on each 

 side forward of the base. The epigynum (Plate I., Figs. 7a, 7b) has a strong curved scapus 

 almost as wide as the atriolum at its base, where the color is yellow or orange yellow ; it is 

 compressed about the middle and w'idened into a spooned bowl ; it is furrowed on either 

 side with a hard lilackish brown rim almost to the base. 



Male: Plate I., 7c; Plate 11., 5. The male resembles in color the female, though there is 

 a tendency to lighter hues. The body is provided with the same long, strong, whitish bristles 

 and hairs that mark the female. These are often strong on the eyelirows and the margin 

 of the ceplialothorax, and they form decided brushes upon the i>aliial joints. The tibia of 

 the second leg is curved outward and provided on the inner and under side with a double 

 row of short t«othlike spines extending the entire length, flanked on one side by a single 

 row, the long spines making a formidable clasping apparatus. 



DisTRiBiTioN : Tins is one of the most common of onr American species and is widely 

 and probably general!}' distributed throughout the United States. I have specimens ranging 

 from New England to Florida along the Atlantic Coast, and as far west as California. 

 I have taken it in Portland, ( Iregon, and Dr. Marx reports it from Nebraska, Texas, Utah, 

 in Colorado at a height of twelve hundred feet, in Minnesota, and at various points along 

 the Atlantic Coast. 



No. 8. Epeira arabesca W.vlckenaer. Plate I., Figs. 8, 8a. ; PI. II., Figs. 6, 7. 



1805. Epeira arabesca, Walckenaer . . Tableau des Araignees, p. 63, No. 44. 



1837. Epeira arabesca, Walckenaer . . Ins. Apt., ii., p. 74 ; Abbot, G. S., Nos. 331, 340. 



1837. Epeira mnl<(hilis, Wai.ckenaeb . Ins. Apt., ii., p. 73, No. 58, in part; Abbot, G. S., 



No. 355. 



1864. Epeira triviltata, Keyserling . . Beschr. n. Orbit., Isis, p. 95, 6-9. 



1884. Epeira (rivitlata, Emerton . . . . N. E. Ep., p. 311, xxxiii., 16 ; xxxvi., 2, 3, 6, 8. 



1888. Epeira arabesca, McCooK . . .* . Proceed. Acad. Nat. Sc., Phila., p. 3. 



1889. Epeira Iririltala, McCooK .... Amer. Spid. and their SpinningW(jrk, YcA. I. 

 1889. Epeira arabesca, Mar.x Catalogue, in loc. 



1892. Ejieira irielttala, Keyserling . . Spinn. Amerik., p. 172, pi. viii., 127. 



Female : Body length varies from 6 to 8 mm. ; cejilialothorax, 2.5 mm. long, 2 mm. 

 wide ; abdomen, 5 mm. long, 4 mm. wide at the base, nariowing much at the apex. Like 

 Ejieira Benjamina, which this species resembles in many respects, the general color varies 

 from reddish brown to yellow. 



Cei'halothorax: Cordate, elevated at the centre, sloping abruptly to the indente<l base; 

 the fos.se a longitudinal slit ; corselet grooves and cephalic suture distinct ; color yellow to 

 orange yellow or brown ; freely covered with yellowish white hairs, especially on the sides 

 of the caput, which form strong eyebrows at the side ; the head depressed, sloping to the 

 face ; sternum shield shaped, somewhat longer than wide, sternal cones distinct ; pubescent 

 edges brown, with broad median yellow band upon the middle; lip low, obtusely triangu- 

 lar; maxillfe about as wide as long, obtusely triangular at the tips; labium and maxilla; 

 yellow. 



Eyes : Ocular quad upon an eminence projecting in front, leaving MR scarcely elevated 

 above the facial surface ; the front somewhat longer than tlie rcai-, and the sides longer 

 than either; the eyes about equal in size, though MR appear slightly larger; MF separated 

 by about 1.3 diameter; MR by about a radius; eyes upon tubercles, Isarely contingent; SF 

 larger than MF, and separated by about a little more than the area of the former, or 1.5 times 



