A HISTORY OF KENT 



siderably in colour, found abundantly in 

 greenhouses and also amongst shrubs in the 

 open garden. This species makes no tent- 

 like retreat, but sits close to the one or more 

 pale rounded egg-sacs usually spun up against 

 a beam or window-sill. 



1 06. Theridion dent'iculatum (Walckenaer). 

 Tunbridge Wells (T. R. R. S.). 



Also a very small and abundant species, 

 occurring on the outside of windows and 

 outhouses and also on walls and palings. It 

 makes no tent-like retreat and the habits are 

 very similar to those of the last species. 



107. Theridion sisyphium (Clerck). 

 Gravesend (F. P. S.) ; Tunbridge Wells 



(T. R. R. S.). 

 Very common on gorse and holly bushes, 

 where they construct a tent-like domicile 

 and spin up within its shelter the small 

 greenish egg-sacs. The young when hatched 

 pass also their earlier days within the tent, 

 but on the death of the mother spider they 

 scatter, taking up positions for themselves 

 amongst the neighbouring foliage. Known 

 also as T, nervosum, Blackwall. 



108. Theridion pictum (Walckenaer). 

 Hurst Wood (T. R. R. S.). 



A very beautiful species, resembling a large 

 example of T. varians with a bright red and 

 white dentated band on the dorsal side of the 

 abdomen, found, often abundantly, on holly 

 and other bushes, where they construct a 

 large and very perfectly formed thimble- 

 shaped domicile, covered with dry chips of 

 leaves and twigs, often decorated with the 

 wings, legs, wing-cases and other debris of 

 the victims which have served them for food. 



109. Theridion vittatum, C. L. Koch. 

 Hurst Wood (T. R. R. S.). 



Not uncommon on palings under trees or 

 amongst herbage in woods. Known also as 

 T. pulchellum. 



no. Theridion himaculatum (Linnasus). 



Gravesend (F.P.S.) Hurst Wood (T.R.R.S.). 

 Known also as T. carolinum, Blackwall. 



The males can be recognized by the sharp 

 spur on the coxa of the fourth pair of legs. 



111. Theridion ovatum (Clerck). 

 Tunbridge Wells (T. R. R. S.) ; Gravesend 



(F. P. S.). 

 A very common species. The female lives 

 in the folded leaf of a bramble, or that of 

 some other shrub, spinning the edges together. 

 Within this domicile she constructs a round 

 sea-green egg-sac about as large as a very 

 small pea. The spider has a pale yellow 

 abdomen with a broad pink central dorsal 

 band or two pink bands, one on each side. 

 Another variety has no pink bands, but a row 

 of black spots on each side. The male and 

 female can often be found together within 

 their leafy domicile. This spider is also 

 known under the name Phyllonethis lineata, 

 and under Theridion. 



112. Theridion pollens, Blackwall. 

 Hurstwood (T.R.R.S.). 



This minute Theridioid, pale yellow in 

 colour, with often a dark, or paler, dorsal spot 

 on the abdomen, lives beneath the leaves of 

 shrubs and trees, laurel, elm, lime, etc., where 

 it spins its minute pear-shaped pure white 

 egg-sac, which rests on its larger end and has 

 several small cusps towards the sharp-pointed 

 stalk. 



113. Steatoda bipunctata (Linnasus). 

 Tunbridge Wells (T. R. R. S.). 



A dark brown shiny rather flattened spider, 

 living in chinks of walls, angles of windows 

 and crevices in the partitions of old stables, 

 etc., emerging usually at nightfall. The 

 males are remarkable for their very large palpi 

 and also for the possession of a stridulating 

 organ, formed by a series of chitinous ridges 

 in a hollow at the anterior part of the abdo- 

 men, which move over some cusps on the 

 conical posterior of the carapace. 



114. Enoplognatha thoracica {Vlahn). 

 Tunbridge Wells (T. R. R. S.). 



Known also as Neriene albipunctata, O. 

 P.-Cambridge and Drepanodus obscurus, O. 

 P. -Cambridge. 



PHOLCID^ 



Spiders with more or less slender bodies and very long slender legs. The eyes are situated 

 in three groups — a group of two in the centre and a group of three on each side. The only 

 British species we possess is a well known frequenter of houses in the southern counties, 

 spinning an irregular web and moving swiftly with a circular shaking motion when alarmed. 



115. Pholcus phalangioides (Fuesslin). 

 Tenterden (T. R. R. S.). 



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