DIMEROSOMATA. 



Order. DIMEROSOMATA. Leach. 



EPEIRA (NEPHILA) MACULATA. 



Plate 47. 



Class. Arachnida. Lamarck. Aptera p. Linnceus. 



Order. Dimerosomata, Leach. 



Family. Araneidx, Leach, 



Genus. Epeira, Walckender. 



Sub-Gen. Nephila, Leach Zool. Misc. 



Ch. Sp. E. corpore elongato, cephalo-thorace holosericeo argenteo, abdomine cyliudrico t'usco- 



rubro lineis punctisque albis ; pedibus longissimis atris. Long. Corp. If unc. 

 E. with the body elongated, cephalo-thorax holosericeus and silvery, abdomen cy- 



lindric, red-brown with spots and lines of white, legs very long and black. Length 



of the body 1J inches. 

 Syn. Aranea maculata, Fabr. Ent. Syst. 2. p. 4'25. 



This remarkable creature is peculiar to some parts of the Chinese empire. It is not 

 the largest of the genus known ; yet it is of sufficient magnitude to excite terror and 

 disgust. To an European, who has seen only the indigenous spiders of his own country, 

 a species five or six inches in length, and nearly the same in breadth, must appear a 

 frightful creature : Epeira Maculata sometimes exceeds that size ; but it has not the 

 forbidding aspect of most insects of the same genus. The legs are unusually long, and 

 the body slender. In its general appearance it resembles some kinds of the Phalangia 

 that are known in England by the vulgar name Harvest-men, being generally seen about 

 that time of the year. 



It has been observed, that nature oftentimes adorns the most deformed and loathsome 

 of her creatures in the richest display of colours ; and this is especially noticed in many 

 sorts of snakes, toads, lizards, &c. Spiders seem also of this description : to a form the 

 most hideous we frequently find united a brilliance of colours, and elegance of marking, 

 that is scarcely excelled by any of the butterfly tribe, — the most beautiful of all lepidop- 

 terous insects. Our present subject is a striking proof of the latter part of this obser- 

 vation. The three figures in our plate of Epeira Maculata exhibit a front and a profile 

 view of the insect, together with the front of the head at the third figure. The head is 

 furnished with two very strong black mandibles, each terminated in an extremely acute 

 point. The fore part of the cephalo-thorax, which is wholly of a fine silky appearance, 

 and the colour of silver, bending over the mandibles in the form of an arch, or circular 



