little known as indigenous to Great Britain. 1 17 



Genus Ergatis, Blachv. 



8. Ergatis latens. 



Ergatis latens. Blackw. Linn. Trans, vol. xviii. p. 008. 



Dictyna latens. Koch, Die Arachn. b. iii. p. 29. tab. lxxxiii. fig. 186. Lister, 

 De Aran. p. 56. tit. xvi. fig-. 16. 



M. Walckenaer has confounded Ergatis latens with Theridion denticulatum, 

 from which it differs essentially in colour, organization and economy, and has 

 given references to Lister's description and figure of the former species among 

 the synonyma of the latter. (Tabl. des Aran. p. /4.) The same distinguished 

 arachnologist has placed Ergatis viridissi ma, Blackw., which is closely allied 

 to Ergatis latens, in the genus Drassus (Hist. Nat. des Insect. Apr. t. i. p. 631 ), 

 evincing by these incongruities the difficulty experienced in attempting to 

 classify the Ciniflonidoe before the discovery of the remarkable characters upon 

 which that family is founded. 



Ergatis latens spins a whitish web of an irregular structure at the extremi- 

 ties of the stems of gorse, heath, &c, growing on commons in Denbighshire. 

 The sexes pair in June, and in July the female constructs several contiguous, 

 lenticular cocoons of greenish white silk of a compact texture, which she 

 attaches to the stem surrounded by her web, distributing about them the 

 refuse of her prey; each contains from 10 to 16 spherical eggs of a yellow 

 colour, which are not agglutinated together. 



Family Agelenid^:. 

 Genus Tegenaria, Walck. 



9. Tegenaria homestica. 



Tegenaria domestica. Walck. Araneides de France (dans la Faune Franchise), 



p. 205. Koch, Die Arachn. b. viii. p. 25. tab. eclx. fig. 607, 608. 

 Aranea domestica. Latr. Genera Crust, et Insect, t. i. p. 96. 



I have received specimens of Tegenaria domestica from the Universities of 

 Oxford and Cambridge, but I never have met with it in the north of England 

 and Wales. Tegenaria civilis is very frequently mistaken for Tegenaria domes- 



