188 On the Systematic Arrangement of British Spiders. 



In autumn the female attaches to the under side of stones, 

 fragments of roek, and lichens growing on old trees, several glo- 

 bular cocoons of whitish silk of a loose texture, measuring, on 

 an average, f ths of an inch in diameter ; each contains from 80 

 to 140 spherical eggs of a pale yellow colour, cemented together 

 in a globular mass. 



I captured an adult female of this species in August 1842, 

 which was entirely destitute of the left intermediate eye of the 

 posterior row, and the right intermediate eye of the same row 

 had not half of the usual size ; and in another adult female, re- 

 ceived fi'om the Rev, Hamlet Clark in the autumn of the same 

 year, the right intermediate eye of the posterior row had not 

 one-eighth of the natural size, being merely rudimentary. 



197. Epeira diadema, 



Epeira diadema, Walck. Hist. Nat. des Insect. Apt. t. ii. p. 29 ; 



Latr. Gen. Crust, et Insect, torn. i. p. 106 ; Sund. Vet. Acad. 



Handl. 1832, p. 235 ; Hahn, Die Arachn. B. ii. p. 22. tab. 45. 



fig. 110; Koch, Uebers. des Arachn. Syst. ei-stes Heft, p. 2; 



Die Arachn. B. xi. p. 103. tab. 384. fig. 910. 

 lutea, Koch, Die Arachn. B. v. p. 62. tab. 161. fig. 378 ; 



Uebers. des Arachn. Syst. erstes Heft, p. 3 ; Die Arachn. B. xi. 



p. 123. tab. 388. fig. 926, 927. 

 Titulus 2, Lister, Hist. Animal. Angl. De Aran. p. 28. tab. 1. fig. 2. 



This spider is plentiful in Great Britain, constructing an ex- 

 tensive net, without any circular opening at the centre, among 

 gorse, heath and bushes. Its tarsi, like those of Epeira qua- 

 drata, Epeira apocUsa, and other species belonging to the same 

 genus, are supplied with several small, curved, pectinated claws 

 at their extremity, in addition to the three larger ones common 

 to them all. There is, besides, a strong, moveable spine, in- 

 serted near the termination of the tarsus of each posterior leg, 

 on the under side, which curves a little upwards at its extremity, 

 and presents a slight irregularity of outline at its superior sur- 

 face when examined under the microscope. These spines, which 

 have been denominated sustentacula (Transactions of the Lin- 

 iisean Society, vol. xviii. p. 324 note*), subserve an important pur- 

 pose : by the conti-action of their flexor muscles they are drawn 

 towards the foot, and are thus brought in direct opposition to 

 the claws, by which means the spider is enabled to hold with a 

 firm grasp such lines as it has occasion to draw from the spin- 

 ners with the feet of the hind legs, and such also as it designs 

 to attach itself to. As the Epeirce, when occupying a position at 

 the centre of their snares, are supported chiefly by the susten- 

 tacula and a line connecting the spinners with their station, the 



