lOO 



THE COMMON SPIDERS 



the females is large and oval, widest across the hinder half. 



The spinnerets are small, but plainly two-jointed, and the upper 

 pair longest. The general color is light yellow 

 brown, covered with gray hairs, the cephalo- 

 thorax browner, and the abdomen grayer, than 

 the legs. The cephalothorax has two indistinct 

 gray stripes. The abdomen is marked with a 

 series of gray spots of irregular shape, smallest 

 toward the front and larger and darker toward 

 the end. The legs are faintly ringed with gray, 

 more distinctly in the young. 



The males are as large as the females, with 

 smaller abdomen and longer legs. The palpi 

 have the patella 

 and tibia short, 

 not much longer 

 than wide (fig. 

 235). The pa- 

 tella has a short 



Fig. 235. Palpus of process on the 



male Tegenaria outCr sidc near 

 medicinalis. 



the end. The 

 tibia is of complicated shape, as 

 shown in the figure. The tarsus 

 is twice as long as the tibia and 

 patella together, with a long 

 narrow tip. The palpal organ 

 is large and complicated, with 

 a long fine tube that can be 

 seen from above, where it curves 

 around the base of the tarsus. 



The epigynum varies in appearance according to the thick- 

 ness and color of different parts. The two figures show 





Figs. 236, 237. Two forms of epigynum 

 of Tegenaria medicinalis. 



