THERIDIIDAE 



40 s 



renders the aid of a microscope necessary to make out tlieir 

 structural peculiarities, robs them of their attractiveness to any 

 but the ardent Arachnologist, hut they number among them some 

 of our most remarkable English forms, and many of them well 

 repay examination. The smallest English species, Fanaiii.omops 

 diceros, measures about 1 mm. (about t,V inch) in length. 

 Many of the groups are jet black, some with dull and others 

 with shiny integuments. They are never greatly variegated in 

 hue, but the glossy black of the cephalothorax, combined with 

 red-brown or yellow legs, gives to some species . a rather rich 

 coloration. 



It is impossible here to deal with this sub-family in detail. 

 Some of its members must be familiar enough to everybody, and 

 the reader is recommended to spend an hour of a warm autumn 

 day in watching them depart on the ballooning excursions, of 

 which a description has been given (see p. 341), from the knobs 

 which surmount iron railings in a sunny 

 spot. Among them he is pretty sure to 

 find the genus Erigone — containing some 

 of the largest members of the group — 

 strongly represented. 



In some species the male presents a 

 remarkable difference from the female in 

 the structure of its cephalothorax, which 

 has the head region produced into 

 eminences sometimes of the oddest con- 

 formation. An extreme example is seen 

 in Walckenaera acuminata, a fine species 

 in which the male caput is produced into 

 a sort of spire, bearing the eyes, and 

 nearly as high as the cephalothorax is 

 long (Fig. 209, 3). 



(vi.) The FOEMICINAE include only 

 two genera, Formicina (South Europe) and Bolenysa (Japan). 

 They are somewhat ant-like in appearance. 



(vii.) The Linyphiinae are closely allied to the Erigoninae, but 

 the legs are usually armed with spines, and very commonly the 

 female has a dentated claw at the end of the pedipalp. 



We include here about thirty genera of spiders of moderate or 

 small size, living for the most part on bushes or herbage. The 



^-'iji^S 



aJi 



Fig. 209. — Profile of cephalo- 

 tliorax of 1, Lophocarenwii 

 insanum ; 2, Dadylo- 

 pisthes digiiiceps ; 3, 

 ] Valckenaera acuminata 

 ( + abdomen) ; 4, JDiplo- 

 cephalus bicepkalus ; b, 

 Metopohractus rayi. 



