THE EPEIR1D&. 177 



Malmignatte is described as producing three large cocoons, each enclosed in a very compact and 

 strong silken covering. They contain a diminishing number of eggs, the first produced having 400 

 and the last about 200. 



FAMILY VII. EPEIRID.E. 



In this family we have to do with the most familiar of all Spiders, the Garden Spider, whose 

 beautiful geometrical webs force themselves upon our attention in the autumn, and some allied 

 species which chiefly inhabit the woods and hedgerows. All these Spiders have the first and second 

 pairs of legs longer than the others, the tarsi terminated by three or more claws, with the additional 



COMMON GARDEN SPIDER (Epeira 



ones very minute, and the eyes placed in two rows, with the two intermediate prirs generally larger 

 than the others and forming a square figure, while the lateral ones are placed close together in pairs. 

 In the British and European forms the abdomen, especially in the females, is of large comparative 

 size, rounded or ovate and very convex. They all produce the vertical circular webs above alluded to, 

 and hence the family has been called ORBITEL.E. The species are generally of considerable size, and some 

 exotic forms measure over an inch and a half in length. They are very generally distributed over the 

 face of the earth, and those of some tropical countries present very wide differences from the ordinary 

 forms with which we are acquainted. They reside and construct their very ingenious snares chiefly 

 among the branches and foliage of trees and bushes, but also frequent herbage, and sometimes avail 

 themselves of the shelter of caves and buildings. The Spider resides and passes the winter in a dome- 

 shaped silken cell formed in the neighbourhood of the snare, and usually connected directly with its 

 centre by a strong line ; and in similar cells the female encloses the cocoons containing her eggs, which 

 are rather loosely constructed of silk, and of a globose or balloon-like shape. In some instances the 

 Spider apparently encloses her whole stock of eggs in a single large cocoon. Thus Mr. Blackwall 

 describes that of Epeira quadrata, a well-known and very fine British species, as containing from 900 

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