220 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



EYES: Ocular quad on a rounded eminence, projecting in front; longer than wide, front 

 narrower than rear ; eyes on black bases ; MF somewhat larger than MR, separated by 

 about 1.3 diameter; MR separated about 1.5 diameter. Side eyes 011 high tubercles; SR 

 larger than SF, propinquate, but not contingent; the space between SF and MF is equal to 

 about 1.3 the area of the latter; space between SR and MR is at least one-third greater 

 than that between SF and MF; clypeus height about three diameters MF; front row 

 slightly procurved, rear row much procurved. 



LEGS: 1, 2, 4, 3; not so stout at the thighs as A. cophinaria, and not tapering quite so 

 sharply to the feet; color yellow, strongly annulated at the tips and between the joints 

 with brown ; covered with yellowish white hair and bristles, and with rather short brown 

 spines; palps yellow, with little brown at the tips, strongly armed with brown spines and 

 spinous bristles ; mandibles yellow, with flecks of brown ; conical, but not greatly tapering. 



ABDOMEN : A long oval, rather truncated at the base (in young specimens subtri- 

 angular) and narrow at the apex, which much overhangs the brown spinnerets; color 

 silvery white, broken by lateral bands of black and yellow, alternating from base to apex ; 

 dorsum not much arched, except in the female when gravid. A dark branching median 

 line, which divides into four longitudinal lines, passes along the centre of the dorsal field; 

 the muscular pits are strongly marked, and the surface is punctuated irregularly with dots; 

 the sides are marked by longitudinal stripes of brown and silver, the colors produced chiefly 

 by the hues of the pubescence; the brown stripes contain many dark brown curved 

 bristles; the ventral pattern is a broad brown patch, with eight circular silvery spots sym- 

 metrically arranged on either side of the median; on the margins a ribbon of yellow or 

 whitish yellow, which encompasses the base of the brown spinnerets in an interrupted 

 band. The epigynum has a bowl shaped atriolum, brown, corneous, which is spanned in 

 the middle by the scapus, that arches over the bowl from side to side, like the clasp of a 

 padlock; the apex is not free, but attached to the posterior margin of the atriolum. (Plate 

 XVI., Figs. 3a, 3b.) It is hollow, and has an opening at the point where the curve touches 

 the venter. 



MALE: Plate I., 10, 11. About the same size as that of A. cophinaria, which it 

 resembles in many respects. The cephalothorax and legs are uniform yellow or yellowish 

 brown, the legs well provided with numerous spines, bristles, and hairs. The front eye of 

 the lateral pair, as in the female, is decidedly smaller than the rear eye. Tufts of silvery 

 white hairs are found along the margins of the cephalothorax, extending to the eye space. 

 The abdomen has a brownish, scalloped band along the median line, with longitudinal rows 

 of silver white hairs on either side. It is a long oval in shape, and, unlike the male of 

 Cophinaria, is not bifid at the base. The venter is silvery white, with a long rectangle of 

 blackish color drawn between the spinnerets and the epigynum. Instead of the three 

 flattened processes projecting from the external margins of the palps, as in the case of the 

 male of A. cophinaria, there is a curled or crescent shaped process, strongly marked with 

 black chitine along the edge. (Plate II., 4.) The habits of the male, as far as known, are 

 precisely those of the male of A. cophinaria. 



DISTRIBUTION: The distribution of this species is coterminous with that of A. cophin- 

 aria, at least I have rarely failed to get the two in the same general bound. I have taken it 

 all along the Atlantic Coast, in the Middle States, and have specimens from the Pacific Coast. 

 L. Koch reports it in New Grenada, Madeira, and Australia. 



No. 73. Argiope argentata (FABRICIUS). Plate XVI, Figs. 1, 2. 



1775. Aranea argentata, FABRICIUS . . Entom. System, ii., p. 414. 



1837. Epeira argentata, AYALCKENAER . Ins. Apt., ii., p. 110 ; ABBOT, G. S., 551; 117, vol. 15. 



1839. Argiopes argentatiu, Kocn, C. . . Die Arachn., v., p. 38, Fig. 360. 



1839. Argiope fenestrinus, KOCH, C. . . Ibid., p. 155, Fig. 361. 



1889. Argiope argenteola, McCoox . . . Amer. Spiders and their Spinningvvork. 



1889. Argiope argentata, McCooK . . . Ibid., Vol. L, p. 108. 



1889. Argiope argentata, MARX .... Catalogue, p. 541. 



