152 Note on a Spider new to the district. By G. Bolam. 



The cocoon after being duly admired was left alone, but the spider I 

 boxed and sent on next day to onr Secretary, Mr Hardy, from whom I 

 received the following interesting communication regarding it, and from 

 which it will be seen that the species is new to the district. Mr Hardy 

 writes : — " The spider is a new one to the Fauna, which is fortunate. 

 " There is a nearly allied species, Epiera antriada, which I beat from Ivy 

 " bushes. This one according to the Rev. C. Pickard- Cambridge, is Meta 

 " Menardi of Lafreille (Latr. Gen. Crust, et Ins. t. i. p. 108) which is 

 " Epeira fusca of Blackwall. Mr Cambridge says ' I have received it 

 " from Aberdeen, and also found it myself at the Trossachs, and we get it 

 " also now in Devonshire.' " 



" I have not a description of it, but I have Mr Blackwall's notice in the 

 " Ann. of Nat. Hist." " He gives for locality, caves, cellars, overhanging 

 " banks and other obscure places constitute the principal haants of Epeira 

 "fusca in North Wales. In autumn the female fabricates a large oviform 

 " cocoon of white silk of so delicate a texture that the eggs, connected 

 " together by silken lines in a globular mass of jth of an inch in diameter, 

 " may be seen distinctly within it. Its transverse axis measures about 

 " v?,ths, and its conjugate axis -$>ths of an inch, and it is attached bv 

 " numerous lines, generally forming a short pedicle at one extremity, to 

 " the walls or roofs of the places it inhabits. The eggs which are yellow 

 " and spherical are between 400 and 500 in number." It was M. Koch 

 who separated this and Epeira antriada from the genus Epeira and formed 

 with them the genus Meta. He also removed them from the family of 

 Epeiiidie to that of Theridiidce— (Ann. Nat. Hist. Vol. x., Ser. 2., p. 18G ;) 

 see also Mr Blackwall's first notice of the species, Trans. Linn. Soc. xix., 

 pp. 127-8, where he states that he found it <; in Derbyshire and 

 C aernarvonshire.' ' 



The description of the cocoon given by Mr Blackwall, as well as his note 

 upon the haunts of his Epeira fusca, correspond exactly with that noticed 

 on the present occasion ; the only difference being that in this instance 

 the cocoon contained young spiders instead of eggs, this giving it, on 

 closer examination, a yellowish centre which very forcibly suggested the 

 yolk as seen through a white egg. 



The old spider may be roughly described as being of a rich deep brown 

 colour, with very long blacklegs, broadly banded with rings of dull amber, 

 and covered with long and conspicuous black hairs. In size it exceeded a 

 threepenny -piece and was altogether too striking looking an insect to be 

 easily passed over, or carelessly thrown aside. 



