5622 Arachnida. 



(having been hatched the same spring) the eggs remain during the 

 winter in the cocoon, and the parents die after they are deposited. 

 There appears, also, to be a great difference in the relative length of 

 life in different species of spiders, some, as Epeira diadema and E. 

 inclinata, living but a single season, while others appear to live 

 through two or three ; but this subject requires further investigation. 

 Besides E. diadema, Epeira quadrata was here very common, though 

 all the specimens I noticed were immature. 1 saw many half-grown 

 individuals of this species seated in the midst of their snares, and 

 making a violent vibratory or dancing movement, the object of which 

 I do not understand. While looking about I observed another 

 smallish spider, seated in the midst of its web ; and on capturing it 

 found that it was an adult female of Epeira acalypha, a species not 

 previously known to inhabit Britain, though common on the Conti- 

 nent.* By carefully looking about I succeeded in finding five or six 

 more specimens of it; they were all seated in the centre of their 

 webs, and all females. 



Among other rare and interesting spiders I here met with Tberi- 

 dion carolinum and T. variegatum. The female of this last species 

 constructs a very curious and pretty little balloon-shaped cocoon, 

 about an eighth of an inch in diameter, composed of soft silk of a 

 loose texture and pale brown colour, which is enclosed in an irregu- 

 lar network of coarse, dark red filaments, which unite together at the- 

 smaller end of the cocoon, and form a slender stem, from half an inch 

 to an inch in length, by which the cocoon is attached to the surface 

 of a stone or the bark of a tree, where it has something the appear- 

 ance of a minute plant, as it is often placed in an erect position. I 

 found one of these pretty little nests here, the stem of which was 

 fixed to the leaf of a moss. I also obtained two other small cocoons, 

 very similar in structure to the above, but differing in form, being 

 elongated and fusiform, tapering to each end, and covered with a 

 paler-coloured and more delicate network of red filaments. These 

 cocoons were probably constructed by some species of Theridion 

 closely allied to T. variegatum ; but they were new to me ; and on 

 transmitting them to Mr. Blackwall I found that they had not pre- 

 viously been observed by that eminent arachnologist. 



On the summit of one of the topmost branches of a tall furze bush 

 I found a large, compact cell of white silk strongly secured to the 



* In a fine collection of spiders made in Dorsetshire, by Mr. Pickard-Cambridge, 

 and transmitted to me for examination last autumn, I found several specimens. 



