Okdeh i. 



PULMONARIA. 



461 



Tetragnatha, Latr., has the eyes arraiif^ed, four and four, in two lines nearly parallel, and separated Viy 

 nearly equal intervals ; the maxillae long, narrow, and dilated only at the upper end, and the cheliceraj are very 

 lonp:, especially in the males : the web is vertical — T. externa, Walck., Linn. 



Epeira, Walck., has the two eyes on each side close together, and the four middle ones forming a square. The 

 maxillse are dilated from the base, and form a rounded palette. E. cucurbilina is the only known species of which 

 the web is horizontal ; that of all the others is vertical or inclined. 



Some species place themselves in the centre with the head downwards ; the others make in its vicinity a small 

 cell, either arched over, sometimes in the form of a silken tube, and sometimes composed of leaves brought together 

 and attached by threads, or opened above like a bird's nest. The webs of some e.xotic species are composed of 

 threads sufficiently strong to catch small birds, and even to annoy man when he may happen to come into contact 

 with them. The egg case is generally globular, but that of some species is of an oval figure truncated at one end, or 

 resembling a very short cone. The natives of New Holland ( Voyage ci la recherche de La Peroitse, p. 239) and of some 

 of the South Sea Islands, when in want of other food, devour a species of Epeira, early allied to E. esuriens, Fabr. 

 M. Walckenaer mentions sLvty-four species of Epeira, generally remarkable for the variety of their colours, 

 forms, and habits. He has distributed them into various small and very natural families, of which we have endea- 

 voured to simplify the study In the 2nd edition of the Noui: Diet. d'Hist. Xat., article Epeira. Various important 

 considerations, however, such as the characters of the sexual organs, have been neglected or not suificiently 

 studied. The most interesting species are 



Epeira diadema, Lin. — ^This is of a large size, with the 

 abdomen marked with a triple cross formed of small 

 white spots; it is very abundant in autumn. Tlie eggs 

 [which the parent deposits at the commencement of the 

 cold weather, in angles of the ceilings of rooms, passages, 

 &c. near gardens, enveloping them with a loose white 

 silken web] are hatched in the spring of the following 

 year. 



E. ventricosa, De Geer, has the abdomen flattened, of a 

 greyish-brown or obscure yellowish colour, with a black 

 band margined with grey down the middle of the back, 

 and eight or ten impressed dots. It spins its web against 

 walls or other bodies, and hides itself in a nest of white 

 siUc, which it constructs beneath some prominence, or 

 in some cavity in the neighbourhood of its web. It 

 neither works nor feeds except during the night, or when 

 there is but little day-light. 



E. fasciata, Walck., has the thorax covered with a thin silvery pubescence ; the abdomen is of a fine yellow with 

 black transverse lines. Its cocoon is about an inch long, and resembles a small balloon ; of a grey colour, with 

 longitudinal black ribs, with one of the extremities truncated, and closed by a flat silken lid. The interior exhibits 

 a very fine down, which envelopes the eggs. This species is found at the edges of running water, where it spins 

 a vertical web, of a very regular construction, in the centre of which it stations itself. M. Dufour has given a very 

 detailed account of this species, and of its habits, (Ann. Sci. Physiq. tom. vi.,) and has for the first time described 

 the male, [which is exceedingly small, compared with the female.] [The egg cocoon of this species is described 

 and figured in the Field Naturalisfs Magazine, vol. ii. p. 57.] 



Epeira cucurbilina, Lin., A. senoculata, Fabr., spins its web of small extent in a horizontal position, amongst 

 the stems and leaves of plants. 



Epeira opunVue, Dufour, constantly stations itself amongst the leaves of the agave and opuntia in Catalonia and 

 Valencia in Spain, where it constructs its net with loose and irregular meshes. Its cocoons are oval and of a whitish 

 colour, composed of two coats, the interior of which envelopes the eggs. 



Amongst the exotic species some are very remarkable. Some of them have the abdomen cased with a very solid 

 skin, armed points, or horny spines, (A. mititaris, spinosa, hexacantha, tetracantha, &c., Fabr. : JE. curvicanda, 

 Vauthier, (Ann. Sci. Nat. torn, i.) has the abdomen dilated behind and armed with two extremely long, curved, 

 slender spines. These spined species ought to form a distinct subgenus, [Gasteracantha, Latr., in Cours 

 d'Entomologie]. 



Other exotic species of Epeira have bundles of hairs upon the legs, (A. pilipes, clavipes, Fabr.) Dr. Leach forms 

 his genus Nep/iisa with one of these species, named N. maculata. 



We now pass to Spiders, sedentary like the preceding, but which are able to walk sideways, back- 

 wards, forwards — in fact, in any direction. These form the section of the Laterigrades. The four 

 fore-legs are always longer than the others ; sometimes the second pair exceeds the first, but some- 

 times they are equal to them ; the animal stretches them out, throughout their entire length, upon the 

 surface upon which it is stationed. The chelicerae are generally small, and their hook is folded 

 transversely, as in the four preceding tribes ; the eyes are always eight in number, often very unequal, 

 and form, by their union, a segment of a circle or crescent ; the two lateral posterior ones are placed 

 further backwards and nearer to the sides of the thorax than the others. The maxillse are in a great 



Fit,'. 30. — Epeira diadema. 



