247 



strong 1 , but short, and rathor hook-tipped process near their 

 extremity on the outer side. Tho sternum is black-brown. The 

 abdomen (of the female) is large and projects strongly over the 

 baso of the cephalo-thorax ; at its hinder extremity on the upper 

 side is a strong, sub-conical protuberance, which, although of no 

 groat length (though it varies a little in different examples) gives 

 the spider (especially when seen sideways) a very peculiar appear- 

 ance (pi. iv., fig. 6a). A broad, irregular, somewhat dentated band 

 extends along the middle of the upper side of the abdomen to 

 the end of the protuberance, and is of a dark-brown or blackish 

 colour, greatly interrupted in the middle, and marked variously 

 with white. The sides are yellowish white, marked with dark 

 streaks and markings, and often suffused with a red-brown hue. 

 The under side is black, with four white markings forming a 

 square, towards the fore part. The posterior markings are by 

 far the largest, and each is generally confluent with the smaller 

 one in front of it, forming together a very characteristic angular 

 marking. 



The abdomen of the male is smaller and the protuberance is 

 less strong, but in colours and pattern it nearly resembles that of 

 the female. 



The snare of Cyclosa conica (pi. iv. fig. 6) is exceedingly 

 perfect and beautiful in its closely woven and geometric regularity 

 and is (I believe always) placed perpendicularly to the plane of 

 the earth among the leaves and smaller branches of shrubs and 

 trees, generally in shady and sheltered positions. It has a 

 habit (noticed in Ann. and Mag. N.H. Ser. 5. Vol. 1878, p. 121\ 

 of covering two of the radii near the middle of the snare where it 

 sits, with an adhesive flocculus, designed no doubt to assist in the 

 entanglement of its prey, the remains of which, after having been 

 seized and the juices sucked out, often remain attached to the 

 flocculus, together with small particles of various other sub- 

 stances ; hence the idea of Lister, and others, that this spider pur- 

 posely attaches the bodies of insects after their capture to these 

 two radii (pi. iv. fig. 6 a.a). The male may generally be found 

 sitting in a snare separate from that of the female, and no doubt 



