THE DRASSID^E. 



665 



This spider is more than half an inch in length, and is found in tolerable plenty in 

 the south of England, its beautiful colors rendering it very conspicuous. The adult 

 female is pale green, with some darker stripes painted, as it were, upon the upper sur- 

 face of the cephalothorax, and all drawn from the sides towards the centre ; while along 

 the middle of the abdomen runs a deep green streak, edged with greenish white. The 

 male, who is smaller than his mate, has the whole front of the body colored like that 

 of the female. But the abdomen is totally different. The ground color is pinky cream, 

 speckled with brown, and three broad crimson bands are drawn longitudinally through- 

 out its entire length, the central band having several protuberances at intervals. 



THE family of the Drassidae is spread over the greater part of the world, and has 

 many representatives within the British Isles. They all have a rather remarkable 

 habit of concealing themselves, not in holes or crevices, but in silken cells, spun by 

 themselves among leaves, under stones, in chinks of walls, and, in fine, wherever their 

 instinct leads them. They are active creatures, and catch their prey by fair chase, 

 in one instance even pursuing the victim beneath the surface of the water. 



A. Clubiona holosericeet. (Male.) 



B. Drasstts cupreus. 



C. Drassus cupreus. (Nest in dried leaf.) 



D. Clubibna holosericea, (Female. 



E. Drassus mlcans. (Eggs.) 



F. Drassus micans. 



G. Clotho Durandii. 



The species shown at fig. B never attains to any great size, two-fifths of an inch 

 seeming to be the ordinary length of a female, the male, of course, measuring rather 

 less. It generally resides under stones in many parts of Great Britain, and but for 

 that habit would be seen oftener than is now the case. The cocoon of the female is 

 pure white, and contains rather more than one hundred eggs of a very pale yellow 

 color. The cocoon is then placed in a larger sac, also made of white silk, and placed 

 in a hole in the ground. The mother spider generally includes herself in this second 

 sac. The color is alike in both sexes, being of a pale reddish brown. 



At fig. F is shown another species of the same genus, and at fig. E is drawn a portion 

 of a twig, showing the manner in which the female deposits her eggs. The reader will 

 probably have seen these curious little egg pyramids on the branches of various trees. 

 This species is very small, the male measuring barely the eighth of an inch in length. 

 It is rather prettily colored. The limbs are buff, with a large patch of chocolate-brown on 

 the first two pairs. The cephalothorax is ruddy leaf-brown, with six white streaks, their 

 points converging to a spot in the central line. The abdomen is deep black in the shade, 

 but when the light shines upon it various iridescent hues of purple, green, and copper 



