THE EPEIRID.^ 



I8l 



legs have dark rings at the ends and middle of the joints. It 

 lives among low bushes a foot or two from the ground all over 

 the country. This spider, as well as several other species, 

 often leaves a web unfinished with the inner spiral still cover- 

 ing a large part of it, as in fig. 420. 



Epeira verrucosa. — • Common in the South and as far north as 

 Long Island, N.Y. The body is about a quarter of an inch 

 long. The abdomen is narrow behind but not pointed, and in 

 front nearly as wide as long. The middle is nearly covered by 

 a triangular light spot, — white, yellow, or pink in 

 different spiders, — surrounded by a darker color 

 of various shades of brown or gray. The cepha- 

 lothorax is yellow or light gray, with sometimes 

 some darker spots in the middle, 

 are colored like the thorax, 

 with darker rings at the 

 ends of the joints and in 

 the middle of the first 

 and second femora. 

 The spines are slender 

 and colored like the 

 hairs. The abdomen 

 has a prominent tuber- 

 cle behind, at the end 

 of the light spot, and 

 under it in the middle 

 line two others. At 

 the sides near the pos- 

 terior end are two pairs 

 of tubercles, and some- 

 times two other pairs farther forward, and two at the corners of 

 the light spot. The colors of the under side are as variable 

 as those above, — sometimes light without distinct markings. 



421 



Figs. 421, 422, 423. Epeira verrucosa. — 421, female 

 enlarged twice. 422, under side of female. 423, 

 male enlarged twice. 



