THE DRASSID/E 



hinder end. The legs are long and tapering in both sexes. 

 The male is smaller and more slender than the female, and 

 the male palpi are long, with the end very little enlarged. 

 They live under stones, and make a large transparent bag of 

 silk in which the female makes her cocoon of ^ 

 eggs, and stays with it until the young come 

 out. Early in the summer a male and 

 female often live together in the nest, even 

 before the female is mature. 

 - Geotrecha crocata. — Black, with the 

 ends of the legs light yellow and a 

 bright red spot on the end of the 

 abdomen. It is about a third of an 

 inch long. The legs are slender and 

 the body is not at all flattened. The 

 cephalothorax is two-thirds as wide as long, 

 oval behind and narrowed in front of the , 

 legs, where the sides of the head are /^ 

 nearly parallel. The abdomen is oval and 

 nearly twice as long as wide. The spinnerets 

 are so far under the body that they show but 

 little from above. At the front end of the 

 abdomen is a spot larger below than above, figs. 20 21 22. Geo 

 where the skin is thicker and harder and 

 browner in color than the rest. The cephalo- 

 thorax is dark brown or black, as are also 

 the femora of all the legs and of the palpi. 

 The ends of the third and fourth legs are a 

 lighter brown and the ends of the first and second legs and 

 palpi light yellow. The abdomen is deep black except a bright 

 red spot at the hinder end, which varies in size, is sometimes 

 broken into several spots, or is sometimes wanting altogether. 

 The eyes (fig. 20) are near together, the upper row curved 



trecha crocata. 

 22, female enlarged 

 four times. 20, eyes 

 seen from in front. 

 21, maxillae, labium, 

 and ends of mandi- 

 bles from below. 



