77 



PHOLCUS PHALANGIOIOE3. 



Pholous piiaxanoioides (FueaslmJ, Blaekio, Spid. Groat Brit, and 

 Irel. p. 208, pi. xv., fig. 137. 



Length of the male, 3 lines, and of the female 4. 



This the only known British species of Pholcides, and it is, so 

 far as I am aware, confined to the southern parts of England, 

 over which it is generally spread. In unused rooms, lofts, and 

 outhouses, at Bloxworth, it is exceedingly abundant ; spinning 

 large sheets of irregular webs in tho corners and angles, adding 

 to them year by year, until at last the whole ceiling becomes 

 covered by them, hanging in large festoons, when, at length, 

 they often break down by the weight of accumulated 

 dust. This spider may be easily known by its small, almost 

 cylindrical, but slightly constricted, abdomen, and very long, 

 slender, hairy legs. The colour of the cephalo-thorax is pale 

 brownish-yellow, with a longitudinal, central, brown band, 

 broadest behind. Tho legs are pale brown, and the abdomen is 

 very like the cephalo-thorax in colour, with a broken band of a 

 darker colour along the middle of the upper side, and some 

 similarly coloured spots along the sides. Its eggs are joined to- 

 gether by silken lines, in the form of a little ball, which it carries 

 in its mouth until the young spiders are hatched. The move- 

 ments of this spider, though tolerably quick at times, are 

 generally lame and awkward ; it has a remarkable habit 

 (observed also in some other spiders of a widely removed family, 

 Epeirides) of giving itself a peculiar, and rapid, vibratory 

 motion, on a slight disturbance of its web, and sometimes on the 

 mere approach of anyone towards it. This is done at times per- 

 haps under the influence of fear, but at other times probably 

 under an impression that some insect is getting into the web, 

 and so, by way of a little help, to entangle it the more certainly ; 

 the web also being thus caused to vibrate, or shake very quickly to 

 and fro ; the exact mechanical means by which these vibratory 

 movements are effected, I have never been able to observe 

 satisfactorily. 



