ON EUROPEAN SPIDERS. 79 
Gen. 3. EPISINUS Warck. 1809. 
Deriv.: Probably eee, hurtful (o¢vouee, plunder, injure). 
Syn.: 1809. Episinus Warck., in Larr., Gen. Crust. et IE jo Bil. 
1861. ^ WESTR., Aran. Suec., p. 193. 
1864. Theridium Brackw., Spid. of Gr. Brit., II, p. 175 (ad partem). 
1864. Episinus [Episina] Srw., H. N. d. Araignées, p. 404. 
Type: Zpisinus truncatus | WALCK. 
The natural place of this genus is still a matter of controversy. 
LATREILLE included it among his Incquitel: also WALCKENAER?) and Lucas?) 
place it near the genus TAeridiwm, and they are here followed by WESIRING 
and BLACKWALL; the last-named author does not even look upon it as ge- 
nerically differing from "Aeridium WaLCK. C. Koch also at first 3) refer- 
red it to his "'Theridides", but subsequently ©) gave it a place among the 
Epeiroide, probably on account of a certain similitude of appearance with 
Tetragnatha. Both its industry and the form of its extremities however 
remove Æpisinus both from the Zpeiroide and the Thomisoide, to which latter 
this genus is referred not only by Simon (loc. cit.) but also by OHLERT >), who 
had nevertheless previously *) declared, on the ground of the number and 
structure of the tarsal claws, his conviction, that it ought to be classed 
among the Theridioidæ, which all, like the Epeiroide, have three claws at 
the extremity of the tarsus, whereas the Thomisoidæ have only two. From 
this last family Æpisinus differs also, and that essentially, in not being in 
the least /aterigrade. A certain analogy with the Philodromine of the fa- 
mily Thomisoidæ we will not deny that it exhibits, especially as regards the 
form of the abdomen; but the extremely fine and weak, tapering extremities 
clearly show that Æpisinus is a genuine sedentary 7), not, like the Thomi- 
1) H. N. d. Ins. Apt. I, 375. 2) Explor. de l'Algér., Araehn., p. 269. 
3) Uebers. d. Arachn.-Syst., 1, p. 10. 4) Ibid., 5, p. 14. 
5) Die Aran. d. Prov. Preuss., p. 110. 
6) OnrERT, Klauenbildung d. Preuss. Spinnen, p. 10. 
1) Onrzmr indeed (with LATREILLE) includes also the Thomisoidæ in the list of 
Aranee sedentes, but he does not give to that expression the sense we think it ought 
to bear. Only such spiders ought to be called "sedentes" or "sedentary", as await 
their prey in a web or nest, in contradistinction to those wich wander about in 
search of it. In this sense "Sedentes" are perhaps only the Orbitelarie, most Re- 
titelarie and some Tubitelariæ (Filistatoide, certain Dysderoide, and most, if not 
all, Agalenoide): the others, and especially Laterigradw, Citigrade and Saltigrade, 
with the exception perhaps of the Eresoide and Dinopoide, are " Aranee vagantes". 
Conf. WALCKENAER, Ins. Apt., I, p. 187 et seqq. 
