250 



This spider is smaller than Singa hamata, Clk., and though resem- 

 bling it in general form and structure, may be easily distinguished 

 by the very different colours and pattern of the abdomen. 



The cephalo-thorax is deep brown. The legs are short and of 

 a bright roddish or orange-yellow colour in the female, without 

 any markings. The abdomen is shorter, and more convex above 

 than that of Singa hamata ; it is of a deep, slightly brownish- 

 black colour, and has three longitudinal, yellow, reddish- 

 yellow, or yellowish-white stripes on the upper side ; the central 

 stripe usually tapers to the spinners, the other two (which divide 

 the sides from the upper part) are narrower, but of a more 

 uniform width ; the under side has also two narrow, longitudinal, 

 marginal stripes of the same colour. There is some variation in 

 the strength and continuity of these stripes, some of them being 

 almost obsolete in some examples, most commonly in the adult 

 males. The Epeira anthracina of Blackwall is a variety in which 

 no trace of markings exists on tho abdomen. 



The spines on the tibice of the first pair of legs of the male 

 are long but slender ; and the fore-extremities of the femora of 

 the first pair are often darkish-brown. The palpi are short ; 

 the cubital joint has at its rather prominent extremity, on the 

 upper side, two long, strong, curved bristles directed forwards ; 

 the digital joint is large, and has a curved process at its base, 

 the point of which is directed outwards. The palpal organs are 

 of large size, prominent and complex, with a curved black spine 

 at their extremity. 



This spider is not rare among heather on Bloxworth Heath, 

 and in other similar localities in tho neighbourhood, becoming 

 adult in June and July. I have also found it near Lyndhurst, 

 and near Oxford; and have received it from Scotland. 



Examples (found by myself) both of this and of the next 

 species were before Mr. Blackwall when he described Epeira 

 Herii (1. c. supra) ; his description, however, appears to have been 

 made from one of the next species — Singa sanguinea, C. L. Koch. 

 — while the figures were drawn from specimens of S. pygmosa 

 Sund, There is no doubt about this inasmuch as the examples 



