44 



THE COMMON SPIDERS 



whole width of the abdomen and behind it several smaller light 

 markings. In the male these markings are brighter and the 

 surrounding dark color blacker than in the females. The legs 

 are marked with indefinite spots of dark gray on a lighter 

 ground, the contrast stronger in the males. The hairs all over 

 the body are short and fine and the spines on the legs distinct, 

 especially in the males. 



Habrocestum auratum. — In life this spider is covered with bluish 

 white hairs that give it a light gray color and obscure the mark- 

 ings. The markings of the male are so much stronger that 

 those of both sexes can be best understood by describing the 

 male first (fig. 122). The cephalothorax has a white middle 

 stripe for a short distance back from the front eyes and two 

 distinct white stripes from the lateral front eyes back the whole 



lenofth. In the middle of the 



head are two small white spots 

 and just behind them between 

 the posterior eyes two curved 

 white lines. The latter marks 

 show indistinctly in the fe- 

 males. Down at the sides of 

 the cephalothorax are white 

 stripes meeting in front under 

 the eyes. The abdomen has a 

 white line extending entirely 

 around it and a middle stripe 

 of varying width. 



The female (fig. 123) has 

 only faint indications of the 

 markings of the cephalothorax, usually a little lighter color in 

 the middle and at the sides below the eyes. The white stripe 

 around the abdomen is broken into three pairs of oblique white 

 markings and the middle stripe into several spots or pairs of 



Figs. 124, 125. Third and first legs of 

 male Habrocestum auratum to show dif- 

 ferences between this species and the next. — 

 124, third leg. 125, first leg. 



