338 On the Systematic Arrangement of British Spiders. 



attached to objects situated in the vicinity of her snare, and con- 

 tains about 50 spherical eggs of a pinkish colour, not agglutinated 

 together. 



A female Theridion quadripunctatum, placed in a phial which 

 was closely corked and locked up in a book-case, continued to 

 exist without receiving a ay nutriment whatever from the 15 th of 

 October 1829 to the 30th of April 1831, when it died. That 

 so voracious an animal should be capable of enduring abstinence 

 from food for so long a period is certainly an extraordinary fact. 



85. Theridion sisyphum. 



Theridion sisyphum, Walck. Hist. Nat. des Insect. Apt. t. ii. p. 298; 



Latr. Gen. Crust, et Insect, torn. i. p. 97 ; Hahn, Die Arachn. 



B. ii. p. 47. tab. 58. fig. 132. 



lunatvm, Sund. Vet. Acad. Handl. 1831, p. 111. 



Theridium lunatum, Koch, Uebers. des Arachn. Syst. erstes Heft, 



p. 8 ; Die Arachn. B. viii. p. 74. tab. 273. fig. 645, and B. xii. 



p. 137. tab. 429. fig. 1060, 1061. 

 Steatoda lunata, Sund. Consp. Arachn. p. 16, 17. 

 Titulus 14, Lister, Hist. Animal. Angl. De Aran. p. 53. tab. 1. fig. 14. 



Though I have never observed Theridion sisyphum in the open 

 air, yet it is not uncommon in greenhouses, where it constructs 

 an extensive complicated snare, somewhat of a pyramidal form, 

 which consists of numerous fine glossy lines intersecting one 

 another in different planes and at various angles. The sexes 

 pair in June, and during the summer and autumn the female 

 fabricates several balloon-shaped cocoons of different sizes, varying 

 from jth to |^rd of an inch in diameter, which she suspends in 

 the upper part of her snare with their larger extremities down- 

 wards ; they are composed of reddish brown silk of a fine but 

 compact texture, and the largest of them sometimes comprises 

 between 400 and 500 spherical eggs of a pale yellowish white 

 colour, not adherent among themselves. Young spiders and 

 cocoons containing eggs may frequently be seen in the snare at 

 the same time. 



86. Theridion riparium. 



Theridion riparium, Blackw. Research, in Zool. p. 354. 



saxatile, Walck. Hist. Nat. des Insect. Apt. t. ii. p. 328. 



Theridium saxatile, Koch, Uebers. des Arachn. Syst. erstes Heft, 

 p. 8 ; Die Arachn. B. iv. p. 116. tab. 141. fig.' 324, 325. 



The oeconomy of this species, which is evidently identical with 

 the Theridium saxatile of M. Koch, is very remarkable. It spins 

 under the projections of broken precipitous banks in the woods 

 about Oakland a snare composed of fine glossy lines arranged 

 after the manner of the Theridia. The union of the sexes takes 



