246 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



No. 97. Meta Menardi (Latreille). Plate XXII, Figs. 4, 5. 



1804. Aranea Menardi, L.\treille . . . Nat. Hist. Crust., vii., p. 266. 



1804. Aranea novem-maeulata, Panzer . Syst. Nom., p. 244. 



1805. Epeira /u^ca, Walckenaer . . . Tabl. d. Aran., p. 63. 



1806. Epeira Menardi, Latreille . . . Gen. Crust, et Ins., i., 108. 



1836. Mela fusea, Koch, C In Herr.-SchaeflF. Deutschl. Ins., cxxxiv., 12, 13. 



1837. Epeira fusca, AValckenaer . . . Ins. Apt., ii., p. 84. 



1841. Meta fusca, Koch Die Arach., viii., p. 118, tab. 285, Figs. 685-687. 



1856. Meta Menardi, Thorell Recensio Critica, p. 98. 



1861. Meta Menardi, Westring .... Aranese Svecicse, p. 77. 



1864. Epeira fmca, Blackwall .... Spid. G. B. & I., ii., 349, pi. xxvi., 252. 



1870. Meta Menardi, Thorell European S5'nonyms, p. 38. 



1884. Meta Menardi, Emerton N. E. Ep., p. 328, pi. xxxiv., 18. 



1889. Meta Menardi, McCook Amer. Spiders and theii- Spinningwork, Vol. I. 



1889. Meta Menardi, Makx Catalogue, p. 541. 



Female: Total length, 8 mm.; cephalothorax, 3.5 mm. long, 2.75 mm. wide; abdomen, 

 6 mm. long, 4 mm. wide. 



Cephalothorax : A long oval, squarelj' truncate at the base ; the fosse a deep semi- 

 lunar indentation, the cavity directed backward ; corselet grooves distinct ; cephalic suture 

 well marked ; caput slightly arched, not lower than the corselet, slightly depressed at the 

 face, which is but little narrower than the base ; the color yellow, flecked with brown. 

 The sternum cordate, somewhat longer than wide, yellowish brown in color; sternal cones 

 especially marked in middle of the apical part, and middle of the base opposite the lip; 

 covered .with yellowish, long bristles; the labium half the length of the maxillre, rounded 

 at the tips and thickened at the base ; the maxilliie decidedly longer than wide, somewhat 

 narrowed at the shank, gibbous at the apex, color yellowish brown. 



Eyes: The entire eye space is black, the quad longer than wide, wider in the rear 

 than in front ; MF smaller than MR, separated by about 1.3 diameter, MR by one diameter ; 

 the side eyes not upon tubercles; MF the larger, separated by about a radius of MR; the 

 space between IMF and MR is about equal to, or slightly greater than, the space between 

 MF; the distance between JIR and SR is somewhat, and but little, greater; clypeus width 

 about 1.5 diameter MF; the front eye row recurved, the longer rear row procurved. 



Legs : 1, 2, 4, 3 ; very long, and sufficiently stout, especially at the femora ; yellow, 

 with brown median annuli ; clothed freely with yellowish hair and bristles, and brown, 

 acute spines ; the palps are colored as the legs, but a lighter shade ; mandibles long, conical, 

 somewhat divergent at the tips, color yellow, merging into orange or brown. 



Abdomen : An evenly rounded oval, thickest across the shoulders, rounded at the base, 

 narrowing somewhat at the apex to the distal spinnerets ; the dorsal folium is a herring 

 bone pattern, yellow along the median, bordered by blackish brown interrupted bands on 

 either side ; streaks of yellow and black alternate upon the sides to the venter, which is 

 black or blackish brown, bordered by yellow, with two yellow spots in the centre ; the 

 spinnerets are stout, short, orange yellow ; the epigynum (Figs. 4c, 4d) has no scapus, but 

 shows simply a semicircular flap, yellow, and covered with hair, that overhangs the genital 

 cleft. 



Male : Fig. 3. Closely resembles the female in size, color, and markings. The legs 

 are without any special clasping apparatus. For a view of the palpal digit see Fig. 5a. 



Distribution : I captured a number of this species in Sinking Spring Cave, Blair 

 County, Pennsylvania, and in the neighborhood. It has been taken in Massachusetts, 

 Kentucky, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. It is a European sjiecies, and may have 

 been introduced by migration and commercial intercommunication, but is more probably 

 indigenous. It dwells in caves, or in dark, moist places, and has in America precisely the 

 same habits as the European representative. Blackwall speaks of the species in Great 

 Britain as also inhabituig cellars and overhanging banks. 



