49 



Five species are recorded in Britain, three of them being 

 found in Dorsetshire. 



DICTYNA ARUNDINACEA. 



Aranka arundinacea, Linn., Syst. Nat. Ed. 10, p. 620. 

 Eroatis beniqna, Blackw., Spid. Great Brit, and Irel., p. 146, 

 pi. ix., fig. 93. 



A small but very abundant spider, in the heath districts of 

 Dorset. Almost every rush stem, and heather twig or bloom, 

 has its extremity tenanted in spring and summer by this pretty, 

 though soberly-coloured spider. 



The caput is greatly raised in a rounded-convex form, and, 

 ■with the rest of the cephalo-thorax, is of a deep brown colour. The 

 fore part of the uppersido of the caput is furnished with numerous 

 white hairs, disposod in lines converging forwards. The legs 

 and palpi are strong and of a brown colour, and the abdomen 

 is yellow brown, clothed with greyish or white pubescence, and 

 has a, sometimes irregular, deep chocolate brown, dentated band 

 along the middle of the fore part of the upper side, f ollowod by 

 some broken angular bars of the same hue towards the spinners ; 

 the sides are brown mottled with white. The falces of the male 

 aro longer than those of the female, and of an irregular, bent 

 form. Tho radial joint of the male palpus has a very small, 

 short, slightly-curved, bifid-pointed process or spur, projecting 

 at less than a right angle from near tho base of the upper side ; 

 and tho palpal organs have a somewhat corkscrew-shaped, 

 pointed spine directed backwards, and almost reaching tho articu. 

 lation of the radial and cubital joints. 



The length of the male is about ono-eighth of an inch, and 

 the female is rather larger. 



If the snare of this little spider be torn open and the spider 

 exposed to view, it makes no attempt to escape, apparently pre. 

 f erring to share in the general destruction of 'its home, rather 

 than to find safety by deserting it. 



