1 14 Mr. Blackwall's Catalogue of Spiders 



Arachn. (Fortsetzung des Hahn'schen Werkes), b. vi. p. 37- tab. cxc. 

 fig. 457, 458. 



In external structure this species makes a near approximation to Drassus 

 ater. It frequents houses, especially such as are old, is a strong active spider, 

 running with facility up smooth perpendicular surfaces by means of the adhe- 

 sive matter emitted from the numerous papillae of its climbing apparatus, and 

 is decidedly nocturnal. I have met with it in several of the northern counties 

 of England and Wales. 



The papillae or spinning-tubes connected with the terminal joint of each in- 

 ferior mammula of Drassus sericeus, not only vary in number with the age of 

 the animal, the full complement being nine large and two small ones, but a 

 like number does not constantly occur on both mammulae of the same indi- 

 vidual, ten or eleven being sometimes observed on one, when nine or ten only 

 are perceived on the other; coinciding in these particulars of their develop- 

 ment with that of the papilla? with which the inferior mammula? of Drassus 

 ater and Drassus cupreus are provided. Since the publication of my observa- 

 tions on the spinning organs of spiders in the Linnean Transactions (vol. xviii. 

 p. 219.), I have discovered that even adult specimens of Drassus cupreus and 

 Drassus sericeus have not uniformly the same number of papillae on the infe- 

 rior spinners, and that the same individuals of both species, though capable 

 of reproducing their kind, sometimes have one mammula more amply supplied 

 with papillae than the other, but that the two minute papillae connected with 

 each inferior mammula are present invariably. It is probable that the large 

 papillae are used by these spiders and by Drassus ater chiefly in constructing 

 their cocoons, whose remarkably compact texture is best explained on the suppo- 

 sition that a copious supply of viscous matter in a state of fluidity is employed 

 in their fabrication. 



2. Drassus ater. 



Drassus ater. Walck. Hist. Nat. des Insect. Apt. t. i. p. 618. Latr. Genera 



Crust, et Insect, t. i. p. 87. 

 Melanophora atra. Koch, Die Arachn. b. vi. p. 88. tab. cci. fig. 493. 



This species is common in Denbighshire and Caernarvonshire, occurring in 

 crevices and under detached pieces of rocks. In the month of May the female 

 deposits 40 or 50 white spherical eggs, not agglutinated together, in a cocoon 



