u6 



THE COMMON SPIDERS 



is gray, with a long black spot in the middle and a smaller one 

 over the epigynum. There is little difference in size or color 

 between the sexes. The epigynum (fig. 269) has two round 

 holes, wide apart, near the thickened edge. The palpal organ 

 (fig. 268) is shorter and simpler than it is in differens. 



Theridium spirale. — This is a round-bodied spider of the same 

 size as differens and murarium. The cephalothorax is orange 

 brown above and below, with an indistinct dark stripe as wide 

 in front as the eyes and narrowed behind. The abdomen has a 



middle stripe like dif- 

 ferens, nearly as wide 

 in front as it is in the 

 middle (fig. 271). The 

 rest of the abdomen 

 is gray, darkest to- 

 ward the stripe. The legs are 

 pale, sometimes with faint gray 

 rings at the ends and middle of 

 each joint. The middle stripe of 

 the abdomen is sometimes red- 

 Figs. 267, 268, 269. Theridium murarium. dish as in murariurn, but oftener 



— 267, female enlarged eight times. 268, ..1 •■ 1 ,1 



end of palpus of male. 269, epigynum. g™Y> Wlth a dark S P ot near the 



front end. The males (fig. 270) 

 have the same color and markings as the female and are 

 sometimes more distinctly marked. The male palpi (fig. 272) 

 are very large, and the palpal organ has a long tube coiled on 

 the under and outer side. The openings of the epigynum 

 (fig. 273) are about their diameter apart. 



Theridium frondeum. — White, light yellow, or greenish white, 

 with black markings that are very variable (fig. 274). Usually 

 the cephalothorax has two fine black lines running back from 

 the eyes and uniting behind the dorsal groove, and black edges. 

 The legs are usually darkened with brown at the ends of the 



