nnd Systematic Arrangement of British Spidei'S. 101 



drical tube connected with it which constitutes the abode of its 

 possessor. The web is attached to surrounding objects by its 

 margin, and derives additional support from, fine lines, intersect- 

 ing one another at various angles, whose extremities are in con- 

 tact with its surface, and with such objects as are situated at a 

 moderate elevation above it. The sexes pair in July, and iu 

 August the female fabricates a large sac of compact white silk^ 

 which comprises one or two lenticular cocoons composed of white 

 silk of a fine texture, measuring about y^ths of an inch in dia- 

 meter, on an average. Each cocoon, according to its size, con- 

 tains from 50 to 120 large spherical eggs of a pale yellow colour, 

 not agglutinated together, and is enveloped in a lenticular co- 

 vering of strong white silk, which is made secure to the inner 

 surface of the sac by silken lines closely compacted in the form 

 of short strong pillars, evidently alluded to by Lister in the fol- 

 lowing passage : " ipse autem folliculus stella in modum for- 

 matus est " (De Araneis, p. 62). The sac is firmly attached to 

 stems of gorse, heath, or long grass, and has usually withered 

 leaves, particles of soil, and other materials of various kinds dis- 

 tributed over its surface. 



In the ' Report of the Third iMeeting of the British Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science, held at Cambridge iu 1838,' 

 p. 445, I have shouTi that the superior spinners of Agelena laby- 

 rinthica and some other spiders have the spinning-tubes disposed 

 along the inferior surface of the elongated terminal joint, and, 

 consequently, that the opinion previously entertained, that the 

 function exercised by these organs is simply that of touch, and 

 that they are employed solely in regulating the application of the 

 spinners to appropriate objects, is decidedly erroneous. 



72. Agelena elegans. 



Agelena elegans, Blackw. Linn. Trans, vol. xviii. p. 619; "Walck. 



Hist. Nat. des Insect. Apt. t. iv. p. 463. 

 Hahnia jpratensis, Koch, Die Arachn, B. viii. p. 64. t. 2/0. fig. 639. 



Though M. Walckenaer has placed this species in the genus 

 Tegenana, yet he has omitted to change its generic name (Hist. 

 Nat. des Insect, Apt. t. iv. p. 463) ; and, not perceiving that it 

 is identical with the Hahnia pratensis of M. Koch, has also pro- 

 posed to transfer it, together with the Hahnia pusilla {Agelena 

 montana, Blackw.) of the latter naturalist, to the genus Argus 

 (Hist. Nat. des Insect. Apt. t. iv. pp. 465, 466, 503) ; but, as 

 the generic characters of both these spiders and those of the 

 Agelerue appear to coincide, I can neither adopt the proposition 

 of M. Walckenaer nor the genus Hahnia of M. Koch. 



Agelena elegans occurs in moist pastures near Llanrwst, and 

 the males have the palpal organs fully developed in August. 



