and Systematic Arrangement of British Spiders. 187 



t'eeds upon their fluids and ultimately occasions their death. 

 Since the publication of my account of this parasite in the ' An- 

 nals and Magazine of Natural History/ vol. xi. p. 1, I have ob- 

 served that the colour of the larva, after its final change of inte- 

 gument, becomes dark brown streaked and spotted with white, 

 ])articularly on the sides, and that a series of dorsal prolegs is 

 developed on the segments of its body comprised between the 

 third and tenth, both inclusive. These dorsal prolegs are short, 

 and, with the exceptioii of that on the tenth segment, are more 

 or less bifid at the summit ; on their extremities are disposed 

 numerous fine curved processes or claws, with which the larva, 

 when about to fabricate its cocoon, attaches itself to the lines 

 spun by its victim. Only two instances are noticed by Messrs. 

 Kirby and Spence in their ' Introduction to Entomology,^ sixth 

 edition, vol. ii. pp. 327, 228, of the larvae of insects having pro- 

 logs situated on their backs. 



195. Epeira celata. 



Epeira celata, Blackw. Linn. Trans, vol, xviii. p. 668. 



M. Walckenaer has disposed of Epeira celata as a synonym of 

 Epeira fusca (Hist. Nat. des Insect. Apt. t. iv. p. 471) ; but it 

 diff"ers materially from that species in size, structure, colour and 

 oeconomy, and has a much closer affinity with Epeira antriada. 

 It inhabits damp caverns and hollow banks in Denbighshire and 

 Caernarvonshire, to the sides of which the female, in the month 

 of May, attaches a subglobose cocoon of whitish silk of a loose 

 texture, measuring about i an inch in diameter ; in it she depo- 

 sits between 200 and 300 spherical eggs of a yellow colour, ag- 

 glutinated together in a lenticular form. 



196. Epeira inclinata. 



Epeira inclinata, Walck. Hist. Nat. des Insect. Apt. t. ii. p. 82 ; 



Sund. Vet. Acad. Handl. 1832, p. 250. 

 Zilla reticulata, Koch, Die Arachn. B. vi. p. 142. tab. 214. fig. 532, 



533. 

 Titulus 1, Lister, Hist. Animal. Angl. De Aran. p. 24. tab, 1. fig. 1. 



Epeira inclinata abounds in many parts of Great Britain, but 

 seems to prefer districts which are well-wooded. It spins in the 

 intervals between the branches of trees and shrubs a net similar 

 in design to that constructed by Epeira antriada, and like that 

 species drops quickly, on being disturbed, from its station in the 

 ci^'cular aperture at the centre of its snare, drawing from the 

 spinners in its descent a line which enables it speedily to regain 

 its former position. 



