230 Miscellaneous. 
which Mr. Wright had seen in site. Another nest, which he had no 
doubt was the same, he had observed torn from its place by some 
bird, as material for the construction of a bird’s-nest. 
Nests somewhat similar are habitually made by Pennsylvania 
Saltigrades upon or among leaves, which shrink up as they die and 
tear the spinning-work so as to destroy the specimen. The one 
exhibited was in perfect condition. It is the tent and egg-nest of 
the species which was alive within it, and the speaker thought to 
be new. It is a large example, five-eighths inch in body-length, 
stout, the legs of moderate thickness, the whole animal covered 
closely with greyish-white hairs, the skin beneath being black. 
Dr. McCook named the species, provisionally, Attus opifea, with a 
double reference to the discoverer (Mr. Wright) and the admirable 
housewright qualities of the aranead herself. The nest is externally 
an ege-shaped mass of white spinning-work, three inches long by 
two and one-half inches wide. ‘The outer part consists of a mass 
of fine silken lines crossing in all directions and lashed to the twigs 
within which it is enclosed. ‘This maze surrounds a sac or cell of 
thickly-woven sheeted silk, irregularly oval in shape, two inches long 
by one inch wide, and also attached to the surrounding twigs. At 
the bottom this cell or tent is pierced by a circular opening, which 
serves the spider as the door of her domicile. It is the habit of her 
genus to live and hibernate within such a silken nest. Against one 
side of the tent within is spun a lenticular cocoon (double convex) 
of thick white silk, within which the eggs were placed. The young 
spiders when received had escaped from the cocoon, and occupied 
the package-box. They are about one-eighth inch long, resembling 
the mother, but less heavily coated with grey. 
This collection also contained three specimens (?) of the genus 
Pucetia, as defined by Thorell*. This genus belongs to the family 
Oxyopide of the Citigrade spiders, to which it is doubtless properly 
relegated in spite of certain analogies with the Attoide (Saltigrades) 
on the one hand, and the Philodromine (Laterigrades) on the other. 
Mr. Wright calls them “jumping spiders.” Hentz, who describes 
several species of Owyopes, says that O. salticus leaps with more 
force and vivacity than an Attust. Of O. viridans he thinks it 
possible that the mother carries its young like Lycosa, This family 
of spiders is arboreal in habit, is found on plants, with their legs 
extended, thus disguising themselves after the manner known as 
“‘ mimicry,” and springing upon their prey. The cocoon is usually 
conical, surrounded with points, placed in a tent made between 
leaves drawn together and lashed, and is sometimes of a pale greenish 
colour. 0. viridans will make a cocoon suspended in mid-air by 
threads attached to the external prominences, which she will watch 
constantly from a neighbouring site. Dr. McCook believed the 
species presented to be new; the body-length is fourteen milli- 
metres; legs long, tapering, with many long spines. The body is 
yellow and pale yellow ; the cephalothorax striped longitudinally with 
* See “ On European Spiders,’ Nova Acta Reg. Soci. Sci. Upsalensis, 
3rd ser. vol. vi. p. 196. 
+ ‘Spiders of the United States,’ p. 48. 
