172 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



LEGS: 1, 2, 4, 3, as follows: 12.2, 1$L2, 9, 6.3 mm.; color brown at tips of joints, stout, 

 strongly provided with brown spines, and more freely with yellowish white bristles and 

 pubescence ; palps as the legs, but of lighter color; mandibles conical ; color, brown, flecked 

 with yellow. 



EYES: Ocular quad on an eminence; somewhat narrower behind, sides not longer 

 than front; MF smaller than MR, and separated by about 1.5 diameter or more; MR by 

 about their radius ; side eyes on tubercles, barely contingent ; SR somewhat, but little, 

 larger than SF, with strong gray eyebrows ; MF separated from SF by about their area, and 

 from the margin of the clypeus by about 1.5 their diameter; front row recurved, rear row 

 longer and procurved; all the eyes on dark bases. 



ABDOMEN: A rounded ovate, little longer than wide; arched upon the dorsum, 

 narrower in front than behind, though in some species the difference is small ; gravid 

 females are rather widest at the middle and sloping at either extremity ; color brown or 

 brownish yellow, thickly covered with white and yellowish long hairs; central folium 

 wide, the margins consisting of brown longitudinal bands, which inclose a herring bone 

 pattern yellow in color, as shown in the figures, Plate VII. The ventral pattern is blackish 

 brown, with a median band of bright yellow and marginal bands darker yellow ; spin- 

 nerets brown, the base darker and encircled by yellow spots. The epigynum (lOa) has a 

 wide scapus, somewhat compressed at the base and depressed abruptly at the apex, 

 forming a small oval tip. The portulw are well displayed on either side, and the atriolum 

 strongly pubescent. 



MALE: Fig. 11. Length, 3.5 mm.; in color and pattern differs little from female, but 

 apical parts of femora dull brown; femur-I provided with two rows of formidable spines, 

 particularly long on the outside; tibia-II not thickened, but a few strong spines clustered 

 around the apex. The cephalothorax is about one-fifth longer than broad ; in front not 

 quite half as broad as in the middle ; dorsum flat, with slight lateral grooves, but a deep 

 median longitudinal fosse ; clypeus low ; the arrangement of the eyes similar to that of the 

 female, except that the space between SF and MF is relatively less, being hardly greater 

 than the distance which separates MF. Total length, 3.5 mm., but some specimens 

 measure as much as 4.1 mm. 



DISTRIBUTION : This species appears to be widely distributed throughout the United 

 States, and probably inhabits every part thereof. My specimens are from New England, 

 along the Atlantic Coast southward to Florida, and through the entire Middle and Central 

 States. I have numerous specimens from California, and along the Pacific Coast (Messrs. 

 Harford, Orcutt, Dr. Davidson, Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Eigenmann), and specimens from the 

 Barbadoes and West India Islands, and from Venezuela (Professor Peckham) and other 

 parts of South America. The tropical and California specimens (Figs. 12, 12a) are usually 

 larger, the annul! upon the legs darker and wider, particularly upon the femora. The 

 colors generally upon the head, cephalothorax, and abdomen are more pronounced, the 

 browns being darker and the blackish colors deeper. The abdomen is more pointed at the 

 apex, wider and more rounded at the base, forming an inverted cone, at the apex of 

 which well underneath are the spinnerets. The spinningwork of these spiders is like that 

 of their Eastern congeners, but the cocoons are longer. 



No. 31. Epeira anastera WAIX-KENAER. Plate VIII, Figs. 1-4. 



1837. Epeira anastera, WALCKENAER . . Ins. Apt., ii., No. 4, p. 33; ABBOT, G. S., No. 381. 



1837. Epeira emtala, WALCKENAER . . Ins. Apt., ii., No. 12, p. 37; ABBOT MSS., Xos. 119, 



120, 361. 



1847. Epeira bombycinaria, HESTX . . . J. B. S., 476; Sp. U. S., p. 117, xiii., 16. 



1863. Epeira jmrculrt, KEYSERLING . . . Beschr. n. Orb. Isis, p. 131. 



1884. Epeira parvula, EMERTOX . . . . N. E. Ep., p. 317, pi. xxxiv., 12; pi. xxxvii., 1, 2. 



1888. Epeira eiuslala, McCooK Proceed. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., p. 100. 



1880. Epeira eustala, MARX Catalogue, p. 544. 



1802. Epeira bombycinaria, KEYSERLING, Spinn. Amerik., iv., Kp., p. 145 pi. 7, Fig. 107, fem. 



