86 ARACHNOIDEA. 



CASE enables their host to keep them aHve in the web, and so secure 

 himself a supply of fresh provision. 



Family ULOBORID^. 



This section has been proposed by Mr. Cambridge for two 

 genera, which it is difficult to arrange elsewhere, Uloborus (Veleda 

 of Blackwall) and Hyptiotes. 



No. 10. Uloborus walcken/ERIUS [Latr.), Veleda lineata, BL — 10. Enlarged sketch 

 of ditto. 



A small fawn-coloured species marked with longitudinal lines 

 on the abdomen. The length of the female is | of an inch. It 

 is very rare in England. It is said to form a web like the 

 Epeiridse. 



Family THOMISID^. 

 This is the most crab-like family of British spiders. Like many 

 crabs, the body is short, broad, depressed, and angular, and their 

 two anterior pairs of legs are long and powerful, while the two 

 posterior pairs are generally small and feeble, and the whole are 

 so constructed that the spider moves backwards, forwards, or side- 

 ways, with equal ease. They live by hunting, and some run with 

 extraordinary celerity ; others are more tardy, and lie in ambush in 

 holes and crevices, to spring upon any prey that may come within 

 their reach. They are generally pale with darker markings and 

 waving black lines round the margin of the abdomen. 



Xysticus CRIST atus {Clerck). 



Pale, with a dark stripe on each side of the thorax, and a zig- 

 zag border on the abdomen. 



This is a very common and variable species, found on the 

 ground and in old pastures. One of its habits is that of rising 

 in the air by the help of fine silken threads spun by it, and 

 which, being carried upwards and onwards by currents in the air, 



