194 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



ABDOMEN: Somewhat longer than wide, semiglobose, and provided with a number of 

 conical tubercles disposed as follows: One on the middle front of the base, projecting for- 

 ward over the corselet ; one upon the apex -immediately opposite the frontal cone ; on the 

 shoulders a double cone, which appears sometimes as simply a tubercle with a cleft top, but 

 again as two distinct cones flattened against each other on their contiguous faces. On each 

 side, symmetrically arranged on the margin of the dorsal field between the shoulder cones 

 and the dorsal apical cone, are three tubercles, somewhat smaller than the above described. 

 On the rear of the abdomen, and immediately beneath the dorsal posterior one, is a tubercle 

 corresponding with those upon the sides. We have thus in all eleven tubercles, counting 

 each of those upon the shoulders as one, or thirteen, counting each shoulder cone as two. 

 These are colored yellow, as is the dorsal field, and are provided with small yellowish 

 white plumose hairs, which are also profusely scattered over the surface of the abdomen, 

 giving a furry appearance thereto. The folium varies in different individuals, being in some 

 rather indistinct, consisting of a triangular patch of brown or brownish yellow, extending 

 from between the shoulders to the apical cone, toward which it narrows. In other speci- 

 mens, particularly in young examples, is a well marked triangular patch. With all but 

 gravid specimens the frontal cone appears rather depressed toward the cephalothorax, mak- 

 ing a triangular space, of which it is the apex, the sides drawn thence to the shoulder cones, 

 thus dividing the frontal from the dorsal field. When the specimen is gravid this frontal 

 triangle is rounded out and does not appear so conspicuous. Frequently two lines of yellow 

 diverge from this frontal cone backward, surrounding a triangular patch of brown, the base 

 of which terminates between the shoulders; both the dorsum and sides are covered witli 

 blackish brown dimples, arranged in rows more or less symmetrically, and extending 

 around the front and sides. The venter has a broad brownish patch, marked with bands 

 of yellow ; the epigynum (Fig. 4b) has a rather wide atriolum, brown, glossy, chitinous, the 

 scapus not prominent, but sufficiently distinct, of equal length throughout, but slightly 

 narrower and rounded at the tip, where it curves toward the body; it is glossy, yellowish 

 brown, with a few hairs at the base, and apparently not grooved. 



MALE: Fig. 5. Resembles the female in general form, pattern, and colors, the dorsal 

 folium of the abdomen more particularly approaching the forms of immature females; the 

 number of tubercles is the same. The palpus is well rounded at the digital joint ; a curved 

 spur at the base of cymbium, with a small tooth near its base; the radial joint wide and 

 bilobed, quite shoe shaped, but short, as is also the rounded cubital. The mandibles are 

 relatively longer and narrower than in the female, and are not so prominently arched 

 toward the base. Tibia-II is not thickened or provided with clasping spines, but has three 

 rows of dark brown ordinary spines surrounding the joint, with several of the same char- 

 acter at the apex. Tibia-I is longer than II and is similarly armored ; coxa-IV has a 

 conical spur at. the articulation of the trochanter. 



DISTRIBUTION : This species has a wide range throughout the United States, my speci- 

 mens tracing it from New England along the Atlantic Coast, through North Carolina and 

 Georgia (Mr. Thomas Gentry), and southward to Florida, westward and northward to Minne- 

 sota and Wisconsin (Professor Peckham), to Missouri and the American plains. 



No. 51. Marxia nobilis (\VALCKENAEB). Plate XII, Figs. 4, o. 



1842. Epeira nobilif, WALCKENAER . . Ins. Apt., ii., p. 171 ; ABBOT, G. S., No. 161 ; Id., 



E. cerasise, ibid., p. 119; ABBOT, G. S., No. 160; 

 Id., E. iris, ib., p. 120 ; G. S., No. 336. 



Although I have numbered the above as a species, I regard it simply as a variety of 

 M. stellata, from which it differs chiefly in the number of the conical processes on the 

 abdomen. After carefully considering the original descriptions of Baron Walckenaer, it 

 seems to me necessary that "stellata" should be applied to the form having the less 

 number of tubercles (eleven), and "nobilis" to the form having the greater number. In 

 truth, however, neither in the one case nor the other is Walckenaer correct, for he counts 



