296 
ARACHNIDES. 
anxiety for the preservation of their eggs, and never abandon them 
till they are hatched. They are short-lived. 
In some, the first pair of legs, and then the fourth, are the longest. 
SCYTODES, Lat. 
But six eyes arranged in pairs. According to Dufour, the hooks 
of their tarsi are inserted into a supplementary joint. 
Two species are known, one of which, the thoracica * * * § inha- 
bits houses in Europe, and the other, la blonde, Ann. des Sc. 
Phys. V, Ixxvi, 5, Avas found under calcareous debris in the 
mountains of Valencia. It weaves a uniform tube of a thin 
milk-Avhite tissue, like that of the Dysdera erythrina. 
Theridion, Walck. 
Eight eyes disposed as follows ; four in the middle forming a 
square, the two anterior of which are placed on a little eminence, and 
two on each side, also situated on a common elevation. The thorax 
has the figure of a reversed heart, or is nearly triangular. This sub- 
genus is very numerous f . 
Therid. malmignatte ; Aranea \3-guttata, Fab. ; Ross. Faun. 
Etrusc., II, ix, 10. The lateral eyes separated from each other; 
body black, Avith thirteen small, round, blood-red spots on the 
abdomen. Its bite is considered venomous and even mortal. 
From Tuscany and Corsica |. 
The A, mactans, Fab., a second species of Theridion inhabit- 
ing South America, is equally dreaded in that country. This 
prejudice against these animals appear to originate from their 
black colour, varied Avith sanguine spots. 
Episinus, Walck. 
Eight eyes also, but they are approximated on a common eleva- 
tion ; the thorax is narroAV and almost cylindrical §. 
In the remaining Inequitelae, the first pair of legs, and then the 
second are the longest. Such is the 
Pholcus, Walck. 
Where the eight eyes are placed on a tubercle, and divided into 
three groups ; one on each side consisting of three eyes, forming a 
triangle, and the third in the middle, someAvhat anteriorly, and com- 
posed of tAVO on a transverse line. 
* Scytodes thoracica, Lat., Gen. Cnist. et Insect. I, v, 4 ; Walck. Hist, des 
Aran., I, x, and II, Suppl. 
•f- See the Tab. and Hist, des Aran., Walcken., the Ann. des Sc. Nat., and Ann. 
des Sc. Phys. The Artinex bipxmctata, redimita, L., and the A. albo-macidata, Deg., 
&c., should be referred to this genus. 
J This species is the type of the genus Latrodecfa, Walck., which he distinguishes 
from that of Theridion by the difference in the respective length of the feet ; in this, 
hoAvever, he appears to me to have erred. 
His Theridion benigniun, Hist, des Aran. fasc. V, viii, whose habits he has care- 
fully studied, establishes its domicil between the clusters of grapes, and defends 
them from the attacks of various Insects. 
§ Episinus truncatus, Lat. Gener, Crust, et Insect, t. IV, p. 371. Italy, and 
environs of Paris. 
