38 



in Dorsetshire. One species only {L. domedicum, Wider) attains 

 any considerable size, the rest being very small. 



LIOCKANUM DOMESTICUM. 



Clubiona domestioa, Wid., Blaokw., Spid., Great Brit, and Irel. 

 p. 132. 



The length of the male is about three lines, that of the female 

 four to four-and-a-half. 



The cephalo-thorax is yellow, tinged with brown, and 

 the margins, as well as a rather irregular band on each 

 side, are brownish-black. The legs and palpi are of a 

 pale brownish-yellow hue, indistinctly annulated with brown. 

 The abdomen is also dull-yellow, with a brownish tinge ; it has, 

 on the upper side, along the middle of the fore part, a black 

 band, broader behind than in front, and following this band are 

 several angular black lines ; the sides also are thickly marked 

 with black, and the underside is of a yellow-brown colour. The 

 palpi of the male are long, the radial and cubital joints of equal 

 length, but the latter is the stronger, and the former has a small, 

 rather prominent, pointed, and slightly curved apophysis at its 

 outer extremity. The digital joint is narrow-oval, and the 

 palpal organs are small. 



This spider is the largest of the genus, and is apparently very 

 local. I have found it frequently under stones and detached 

 pieces of rock partially embedded in the soil, near Pennsylvania 

 Castle, Portland, in the autumn and late summer months ; all 

 were females, and at that time immature, and therefore we may 

 conclude its time of maturity to be in the spring or early summer. 

 It is a very distinctly marked spider, and not likely to be mis- 

 taken for any other species of this group, though at first sight it 

 is not greatly unlike immature examples of Tegenaria atrica, which 

 is abundant in the same locality and situation ; it is also exceed- 

 ingly active, and escapes with great celerity on being exposed by 

 lifting up the stone. Its usual position appears to be with its 

 legs spread out flat upon the under side of the stone, sometimes 



