PULMONAUIyE. 185 



fourth. The abdomen is more voluminous, softer, and more colour- 

 ed than in the preceding tribes. Their webs form an irregular net 

 composed of threads which cross each other in every direction and 

 on several planes. They lie in wait for their prey, display much 

 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 ^/joracJca( 1) in- 

 habits houses in Europe, and the other, la blonde, Ann. des Sc, 

 Phys. V, Ixxvi, 5, was found under calcareous debris in the 

 mountains of Valencia. It weaves a uniform tube of a thin 

 milk-white 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 subgenus is very numerous(2). 



Therid. malmignatte; Aranta \o-guUata, Fab.; Ross. Faun. 

 Etrusc, 11, ix, 10, The lateral eyes separated from each other; 

 body black, with thirteen small, round, blood-red spots on the 

 abdomen. Its bite is considered venomous and even mortal. 

 From Tuscany and Corsica(3). 



The A. mactans, Fab., a second species of Theridion inhabit- 

 ing South America, is equally dreaded in that country. This 

 prejudice against these animals appears to originate from their 

 black colour, varied with sanguine spots. 



(1) Scytodes thoracica, Lat., Gen. Crust, et Insect. I, v, 4; Walck. Hist, des 

 Aran., I, x, and II, Suppl. 



(2) See the Tab. and Hist, des Aran., Walcken., the Ann. des Sc. Nat., and 

 Ann. des Sc. Phys. The Arane^e bipundata, redlmita, L., and the £. albo-maculata, 

 Deg., &c., should be referred to this genus, 



(3) This species is the type of the genus Latrodeda, Walck., which he distin- 

 guishes from that of Theridion by the difference in the respective length of the 

 feet; in this, however, he appears to me to have erred. 



His Theridion benignum. 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. 

 Vol. III.— Y 



