144 Journal of Entomology and Zoology 



hatrodectus mac tans Fabricus. Plate V 



Of the family Theridiiae, hatrodectus mactans was studied. 1 he 

 color of the adult female is coal black, often having a broken row 

 of red spots down the median line oi the abdomen: the female is 

 black with four red stripes on the abdomen besides the broken red 

 line down the median line of the abdomen. The female is often 

 lacking the red color and then is pure black. The young are a 

 light yellow gray white upon emerging, but in thirteen days after 

 their first moult outside oi the egg case the cephalothorax was 

 bright yellow brown with darker brown sides and a triangular 

 brown spot in the median area ot the cephalothorax reaches to 

 the eve space. The abdomen was white with four varying sized black 

 spots on its surface. The coxa and trochanter ot the legs were yel- 

 low brown with dark gray on the upper margin oi each; the femur, 

 tibia, metatarsus and tarsus were light brown gray with dark gray 

 on both upper and lower margins oi each joint. The palpi were 

 marked the same as the legs, but with a great amount ot dark 

 grav color. The next moult occurred when the spiderlings were 

 twenty days old. The thoracic portion oi the cephalothorax was 

 dark brown, the sides had a dark gray band and the lower margin 

 of this part of the cephalothorax had two dark gray spots. The 

 pattern on the median portion oi the cephalothorax was more slen- 

 der and very black brown. Idle eye space was light brown. The 

 abdomen was a dirty gray ground color. The black spots on the 

 one described before had enlarged and between these rows of spots 

 were two more broken lines ot black spots. The pure white color 

 remained only near the margins of the abdomen and as a median 

 stripe. The legs were dark brown with darker black brown on the 

 upper margin oi each joint except the coxa. The palpi were light 

 brown having lost all their gray color. At thirty-four days oi age 

 the cephalothorax had grown lighter, the margins were black with 

 a brown stripe bordering the very thin black one. The triangular 

 brown pattern on the median area had spread from the eye space 

 to the lower margin oi the cephalothorax. The abdomen had the 

 dirty gray ground color except for the pure white median stripe. 

 The abdomen had now three horizontal small black broken lines 

 and four large black spots and two broken black lines bordering 



