250 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



and to an obtuse point, at the base, which overhangs the cephalothorax. A broad, creta- 

 ceous or yellowish reticulated median band extends the whole length of the dorsum, 

 somewhat narrowed at the ends; brownish, branching, longitudinal lines mark the middle 

 of the dorsum towards the apex. The dorsal surface is covered with stout, short, curved 

 bristles distributed symmetrically thereon ; the basal point is tufted with bristles. The 

 venter shows a yellow, median longitudinal band, with brownish margins between the 

 gills and the spinnerets, which are yellowish brown. The epigynum in the example 

 before me is apparently not quite mature, but jiresents the appearance of a low atriolum, 

 double notched on the edge (Fig. 3f), the scapus wanting, or expressed by a simple short 

 fold at the base. 



I think it probable that Epeira directa and E. rubella of Hentz are identical, and that 

 the drawings have become somewhat mixed on the plate; Hentz himself expresses the 

 opinion (page 120), though with doubt, that his E. rubella may prove to be the young of 

 E. directa. According to this author the spider is found generally near water, where it 

 makes a perpendicular web upon low bushes. When approached it drops and remains 

 motionless where it falls. He found in Alabama a specimen with four minute blackish 

 spots upon the abdomen, which may indicate the variety drawn. (Fig. 3c.) The male was 

 found by Hentz with black dots all over the legs, except the thighs, and also with black 

 dots on each side of the abdomen, but evidently the same species, of which he adds that 

 it is nocturnal in its habits. According to Cambridge (E. tetragnathoides) the male palps 

 have short cubital joints, somewhat angular in front, with two very long, strong, tapering, 

 divergent bristles. The radial joint is obtusely produced on its outer edge ; the i)alpal bulb 

 small. 



Distribution : North Carolina (Plate XXII., Fig. 3) ; Indian River, Florida. Hentz col- 

 lected in Alabama and South Carolina. The specimens described by Mr. Cambridge are 

 from Guatemala and Panama, and although they show some variations in color and markings 

 from those found in the Southern United States, appear to be the same. The distribution 

 is therefore throughout the Southern United States and North America, and probably in 

 the Northern States of South America. I believe that it lives at least as far north as New 

 Jersey. 



Genus NEPHILA, Leach, 1815. 



The genus Nephila, of which we have several known species, is confined to the 

 southern and southwestern belt of the United States. It is distinguished by an oval 

 cephalothorax, of nearly equal width throughout, whose base is flat and low. ' The 

 caput is elevated and arched, quadrate, and wide at the face ; in some species, on the base 

 thereof, near the fosse, is a pair of corneous tubercles. The skin is hard, and usually 

 covered, except on the smooth marginal walls, with a close coating of lustrous white hair, 

 which gives the organ a metallic brightness. Tlie length of the sternum, differs little 

 from its width, is marked by decided sternal cones, with a glossy and hard skin, covered 

 with metallic hairs. The labium is longer than wide, thick at the base, and the maxillae 

 especially are decidedly longer than wide, compressed at the shank and rounded at the 

 tips. The eyes are arranged in three groups, ordinarily placed upon decided tubercles; 

 the ocular quad is usually longer than wide; the side eyes well separated; the front row 

 procurved and the rear row recurved, or nearly aligned. The legs are long, rather 

 attenuated, the thighs not stout, the metatarsus relatively much longer than the tarsus, and 

 the apical part of one or more of the joints usually provided witli a brushlike appendage 

 on one or both sides. The abdomen is much longer than wide, cylindrical, brilliantly 

 colored, and provided with numerous hairs, of a metallic, silvery lustre, which give the 

 animal an unusually beautiful and brilliant appearance. The epigynum has commonly a 

 hard, vaulted atriolum, and is without a scapus. The males of this genus are very much 

 smaller than the females, and do not closely resemble them. The snare is an immense 

 orb, woven in forests and woods, whose spirals are composed of successive, nearly circular, 

 loops. 



