VAP0RER MOTH THE DECEIVING SPIDER. 219 



by cob-web like threads, around the little web within which it 

 dwells. This is evident from the leaves as we see them in win- 

 ter, being worm-eaten and having the castings of the worm, in 

 the form of dry grains, still adhering to them. But the threads 

 by which such worms tie the leaves together are so slight and 

 fragile, that the leaves forming their nests are all torn off and 

 dispersed by the storms of autumn. In some instances, however, 

 it appears that after the worm has evacuated this abode, another 

 tenant takes possession of it, finding it to be the very situation 

 which he desires for his winter quarters. This new occupant is 

 a small spider, which ties the leaves anew, with threads of its 

 own, numerous threads being woven together, forming a narrow 

 fillet or ribbon which is so strong that although the leaves flut- 

 ter and rustle with every breeze, they are not torn away by the 

 most violent winds of winter. And within the leaves this spider 

 forms for itself a little oval cot of soft silken threads of snowy 

 whiteness and matted densely together, within which as in a bed 

 of down, it reposes through the winter in comfort ant:! security. 

 This spider is very closely allied to an Alabama species, named 

 Epeira displicata, by Prof. Hentz in his valuable monograph of 

 the spiders of the United States, published in the Boston Jour- 

 nal of Natural History, (vol. v. p. 476.) It however is suffi- 

 ciently distinguished from that species by wanting the impressed 

 black dots on the anterior part of the abdomen, and by its col- 

 ors. In allusion to the circumstance which will probably cause 

 this minute object to be most frequently noticed, I propose to 

 name it 



The deceiving spider {Epeira decipiens). As it occurs in its nest in the 

 winter season, this spider is 0.12 long, and of a pale hrown color, reddish 

 brown beneath, the head and legs being paler brown or yellowish horn colored, 

 sometimes with a greenish tinge. The abdomen is nearly globular, slightly 

 depressed, and is surrounded horizontally with a whitish band. Posteriorly 

 upon the upper side of this band is a row of six large equidistant black dots, 

 each of which is encircled with a pale yellow ring. Behind the two posterior 

 dots are two very minute ones, which are encircled in the same manner. The 

 spinnerets at the tip of the abdomen are olive green. There are traces of two 

 white cloud-like stripes along the middle of the abdomen, and in a particular 

 reflection of the light it appears to be crossed by imperfect white bands. The 

 legs are furnished with blackish bristles. As in several of the other species of 

 this extensive genus the two upper or posterior eyes are largest and are almost 

 in contact with each other, and the two outer ones upon each side are conflu- 



