242 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



its hinder extremity is sometimes prolonged in a quasicaudal form. All the known species 

 are more or less ornamented with patches, streaks, stripes, lines, or sprinklings of brilliant 

 silver, sometimes varied with hlack and reddish on a whitish or yellowish, or often, in life, 

 a greenish colored ground ; occasionally the abdomen is short, stout, or subglobular. The 

 true Meta has the legs usually stronger and more freely clotlied with spines, and the 

 abdomen in form more subtriangular than in Argyroepeii-a, approaching more nearly the 

 larger Linyphioid spiders. The palps of the male in Argyroepeira nearly approach in 

 structure those of Tetragnatha, as well as those of Pachygnatha. ' 



No. 94. Argyroepeira venusta (Walckenaer). Plate XX, Figs. 1-6. 



1837. Epeira I'enusla, Walckenaee . . Ins. Apt., ii., p. 90; Abbot, G. S., No. 113.^ 



1847. Epeira hortorum, Hentz .... J. B. S., v., p. 477 ; Sp. U. S., p. 18, xiii., 19. 



1863. Tetragnatha quinque-lineata, Key- 



SERLiNG Beschr. n. Orbitel., p. 145, vii., 3-6. 



1881. Meta argyra, Keyserlinq .... Neue Spinn. aus Amer., ii., 19. 



1884. Argyroepeira hortorum, Emerton . N. E. Ep., p. 332. 



1889. Argyroepeira hortonim, McCooK . Amer. Spiders and their Spinningwork. 



1889. Argyroepeira hortorum, Marx . . Catalogue, p. 550. 



Female: Total length, 7 mm.; cephalothorax, 3 mm. long, 2 mm. wide; abdomen 

 5 ram. long, 3 mm. wide. 



Cephalothorax : A long oval, truncated behind, flat upon the dorsum ; median fosse a 

 deep circular pit; cephalic suture strongly marked; corselet grooves prominent; head slightly 

 depressed ; color yellow ; caput smooth and rounded, but little pubescent. Along the margin 

 of the corselet on either side in the adult is a row of short, stout bristles, sloping forward 

 like cogs in a wheel. The corselet is of almost equal thickness throughout. The sternum is 

 cordate or subtriangular, slightly longer than wide, with decided sternal cones; yellow, with 

 long, blackish, bristlelike hairs. The labium has jiarallel sides, and an obtusely triangular 

 tip ; is dark brown, about half the length of the maxillse, which are much longer than 

 wide, the greatest width being at the tip, where it is rounded. (See Fig. la.) 



Eyes : The ocular quad has only the midfront eyes upon a prominence ; is wider 

 behind than in front; sides longer than rear. MF are .separated by about one diameter, 

 MR, which about equal MF in size, by a diameter and a half. The side eyes are pro- 

 pinquate, SR smaller than SF, and placed well behind them. MF are separated from SF 

 by 1.3 their area, SR from MR by about an equal space. The front row is recurved, the 

 rear row slightly procurved. The clypeus has the width of about one diameter MF. 



Legs: Rather long, sufficiently stout, particularly at the femora, with longitudinal rows 

 of short, fine hairs. A curious tuft of long, curved hairs marks the inside of the fourth 

 leg toward the front. (Fig. Ic.) These are arranged in douljle rows of about ten to twelve 

 on each side. There are but few spines, and these long and feeble. The palps are marked 

 as the legs ; mandibles long, strong, conical, arched at the base, seiiarated at tips. 



Abdomen: Cylindrical, somewhat thicker at the base, and but little wider; apical wall 

 high, spinnerets placed immediately beneath ; colors green, with beautiful silvery reticula- 

 tions, and black longitudinal lines on the dorsal field ; skin without pubescence. The 

 epigynum is an open atriolum, without a scapus. 



Male: Fig 4, side view. In general color and markings resembles the female, is 

 smaller, and not so stout ; body length, 4 mm. ; the abdomen, which slightly overhangs the 

 cephalothorax, 2.2 to 3 mm., the cephalotlioi'ax 2 mm. long. The legs are much longer tlian 

 with the female, and, relatively, not so stout; order, 1, 2, 4, 3, as follows: 16, 13, 10, 8 mm.; 

 tibia-II has no clasping spines or other special developments, and the double row of hairs 



* I have adopted substantially Cambridge's description of this genus, Emerton having made none. 



* No. 475 of the Abbot MSS. may also refer to this species, which the drawing closely resembles. It 

 is, however, somewhat uncertain; but I have no doubt at all as to No. 113. 



