and Systematic Arrangement of British Spiders. 333 



served it in the north of England and Wales. It inhabits old 

 buildings, spinning an extensive horizontal sheet of web in the 

 angles formed by the transverse junction of their walls, and in 

 various other situations : connected with the web, which, in ad- 

 dition to its lateral points of contact, is supported by numerous 

 fine lines attached to both surfaces and to adjacent objects above 

 and below it, is a short tube, usually situated in the angle formed 

 by the walls, which being open at its extremities not only affords 

 a retreat to the spider, but a ready medium of communication 

 also with every part of its snare. The sexes pair in May, and in 

 the two following months the female constructs several lenticular 

 cocoons of white silk of a fine texture, measuring about |^ths of 

 an inch in diameter, each of which contains from 130 to 150 

 spherical eggs of a yellowish w-hite colour, not agglutinated 

 together. All the cocoons are inclosed in separate sacs composed 

 of compact white silk, having particles of plaster, whitewash, 

 and other heterogeneous materials distributed upon their exterior 

 surface. 



The spider alluded to by Mr. Jesse in his ' Scenes and Tales 

 of Country Life,' p. 339, as being peculiar to Hampton Court, 

 and there named the " Cardinal,'' most probably is this species. 



79. Tegenaria atrica. 



Tegenaria atrica, Koch, Die Arachn. B. x. p. 105. tab. 353. fig. 825. 

 8(Bva, Blackw. Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. xiii. p. 179. 



In the autumn of 1843 Miss Gertrude Buller Elphinstone 

 obligingly ti-ansmitted to me from Middlesex living specimens 

 of this fine species, which ranks among our largest indigenous 

 spiders ; they were captured at East Lodge, Enfield, where Miss 

 Elphinstone then resided, and in reply to some inquiries relative 

 to their habits, she informed me that they were found in dwell- 

 ing-houses and conservatories. Subsequently I have received 

 specimens from Miss Ellen Clayton, who obtained them at 

 Oxford. 



The superior spinners of this species, like those of Agelena 

 labyrinthica, are triarticulate, and have the spinning-tubes dis- 

 posed on the inferior surface of their elongated terminal joint; 

 when thus modified, the principal purpose subserved by these 

 organs appears to be the binding down with transverse linesj 

 distributed by means of an extensive lateral motion, of the fila- 

 ments emitted from the inferior and intermediate spinners, by 

 which process a compact tissue is speedily fabricated. When in 

 captivity, Tegenaria atrica constructs a horizontal sheet of web, 

 with a short tube at one of the margins, serving it for a retreat. 



As the tenth volume of ' Die Arachnidcn ' did not come into 



