138 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



E. strix, bringing it into the front row. MF are separated from SF by about 1.3 their 

 area, and from the margin of the clypeus by about two diameters. Front row Is recurved, 

 the rear row, which is much the longer, procurved. 



Legs : Strong and stout ; covered witli gray hairs, rather sparsely with bristles, and 

 with numerous yellow or blackish spines. The femora are yellow, or orange yellow, with 

 broad dark brown or blackish terminal bands, which also encompass the patella. The tibia 

 and metatarsus have dark brown annuli at the ends, and a broad one of similar color in 

 the middle. Feet black, with a yellow band at the articulation with the metatarsus ; palps 

 heavily armed with gray bristles and long yellow spines, are colored as the legs, but lighter. 

 Mandibles conical, arched at the base, where they slightly project beyond the clypeus; dark 

 glossy brown or blackish brown in color ; not so much contracted at the tips, nor so 

 greatly arched at the base as E. strix. 



Abdomen: A long oval, narrowing at the apex to the spinnerets, which are distal. 

 The dorsal folium (Plate II., Fig. 10) is sharjily outlined by a narrow undulating border of 

 gray hairs, broadest at the base, and gradually diminishing in width to the si^innerets. A 

 lance head point projects forward along the front from the basal part of this marginal line. 

 The line is interrupted about one-third the distance from the base, giving it in many exam- 

 ples the appearance of two separate figures, the apical portion thereof being a triangle with 

 scalloped edges, and a lance headed figure projecting from the middle. The general colors 

 of the dorsum are blackish brown, the sides are mottled with gray waving longitudinal 

 lines formeil, like tlie dorsal figure, of long gray hairs. Tlie venter is a wide trapezoidal 

 figure, blackish brown in color, with yellowish gray lunettes on either side. The spinnerets 

 are suiTounded with black, and are themselves blackish or dark brown in coloi'. The 

 epigynum (Plate I., Fig. !i) has a narrow scapus Ijut little widened at the base, and nar- 

 rowing down to the portulse on either side, which are prominent and present at times 

 the appearance of the figure, but at others more compacted, and rather resembling the 

 portulcB of Epeira patagiata. (Fig. 11a.) 



]\I.-iLE: Length, 7 mm.; in markings and general color closely resembles the female. 

 The cephalothorax is more rounded and of a uniform bright brown color, apparently not 

 so heavily haired, pubescent upon the toji of the corselet, but with a marked ring of 

 gray hairs encompassing the margin, and also along the edges of the caput to the eye 

 space. The median fosse is a longitudinal slit. The sternum is ratlier more cordate in 

 shape ; the legs much longer and relatively thinner than in the female. The second leg is 

 not specialized in any way, and there appears to be no special clasping spines or armatures at 

 any point ; the femora, especially of the first two pairs, are mottled beneath with dark brown 

 spots, which sometimes may also be observed in the female. The character of the palj) is 

 shown at Plate I., 9a. It is easily distinguished from the male of E. strix, not only by the 

 general appearance and character of the palpal bulb, l)ut more easily at once by the absence 

 of the curved metatarsus and the series of strong, black clasping spines upon the inside 

 of the second tibia which characterize Strix. The first leg of Strix, also, is more heavily 

 armed at the thickened tibia with numerous black sjiines. 



Dlstribution : Epeira sclopetaria is a common spider in many sections of the country. 

 It is abundant along the seashore of New England and New Jersey. It is also found 

 around the outhouses, stables, etc., in the neighborhood of Philadelphia. Hentz described 

 it from South Carolina. Specimens are common in collections from the West, and it is 

 jirobably distril^uted over the entire United States. It is also a European species of general 

 distribution from Sweden southward, and probably shares with E. patagiata a world wide 

 distribution through the northern temperate zone. 



No. 2. Epeira patagiata (Clerck). Plate I., Fig. 11 ; PI. III., Figs. 8, 9. 



1757. Araneus jxitagiatus, Clerck . . . Aranei Svecici, p. 38, pi. 1, tub. 10. 



1834. Epeira dumelorum, H.a,hn .... Die Arachn., ii., p. 31, tab. 48, Fig. 117. 



1837. Epeira dumelorum, Koch .... Uebersicht des Arachniden-Systems, heft 1., p. 2. 



