300 ARACHNIDES. 



long ; It resembles a little balloon, of a grey colour, with longi- 

 tudinal black stripes, one of whose extremities is truncated and 

 closed by a flat and silky operculum ; a fine down envelopes the 

 eggs in its interior. This species weaves a vertical and irregular 

 web, in the middle of which it remains, along the banks of rivu- 

 lets, Sfc. Its thorax is covered with a soft and silvery down, 

 and its abdomen is of a beautiful yelloAV, intersected at intervals 

 with transverse brown, or blackish-brown lines, arcvxated and 

 slightly undulated. M. Leon Dufour, Ann. des Sc. Phys. VI, 

 pi. xcv, 5, has given a detailed description of this species, and of 

 its habits, and was the first who ascertained the male. He has 

 figured its sexual organ. The penis resembles a tAvisted seta. 



Ep. cucurbitina ; Aranea cucurbitina, L.; A. senocidata. Fab.; 

 Walck, Hist, des Aran., Ill, iii. Small; abdomen ovoid and 

 lemon-coloured, marked with black points ; a red spot on the 

 anus. It weaves a small horizontal web between the stems and 

 leaves of plants. 



Ep. conica; Aranea conica, De Geer and Pall. ; Walck. Hist. 

 Nat. des Aran., Ill, iii. Remarkable for its abdomen, which is 

 gibbous anteriorly and has a conical termination ; the anus is 

 placed in the centre of an eminence. When it has extracted 

 the juices from an insect, it suspends it to a thread. 



Immediately after the conica, we may place the species called 

 by Dufovir Epe'ire de ropuntia — Ann. des Sc. Phys., V,lxix,3 

 — from the circumstance of its always weaving its loose and 

 irregular web among the leaves of the Agave and Opuntia. It 

 is black, with white hairs laid close to the body, having an 

 appearance of scales. The abdomen has two pyramidal tuber- 

 cles on each side, and terminates posteriorly in two others, 

 which arc obtuse, and separated by a wide emargination. The 

 posterior face of each tubercle is marked with a beautiful snow- 

 white spot, resembling nacre ; these spots are connected with 

 each other, and with one or two more behind them, by white 

 zig-zag lines. In the ncAvly-hatched animal, these tubercles are 

 not visible. The cocoons arc oval, whitish, and formed of two 

 coats, the interior of Avhich is a kind of tow that envelopes the 

 ova. Seven, eight, and even ten of these cocoons are frequently 

 found arranged in file, or one after the other. From Catalonia 

 and Valencia. 



Some of the species foreign to Europe arc very remarkable. 

 Here we observe that the abdomen is invested with an extremely 

 firm skin, furnished with points or horny spines* ; and there the 

 legs are provided with bundles of hairs t- 



* The Ar. ntiliiaris, spinosa, cancriforniis, hexacaniha, tctracantha, (jeminata,forni- 

 cata, of Fabricius. M. Vauthier, one of our best painters of subjects of natural 

 history, has described and figured, Ann. des Sc. Nat., I, p. 161, a species of this 

 division — curvicaitda — which is very remarkable for its posteriorly widened abdomen, 

 terminated by two long arcuated spines : it inhabits Java. These spinous species 

 might form a peculiar subgenus. 



-|- The Ar. }Ali2)is, ckuipes, &c., of Fabricius. His At: macuJuta forms the genus 

 Nephisa, Leach. See the Tab. and Hist. des. Aran, of Walckenacr. 



