263 



EPEIIU DIOIDEA. 



Epeira dioidea, Walck., Ins. Apt. II., p 55. 

 Epeira almmacula, Blackw., Spid. Groat Brit, and Irel. p. 355, 

 pi. xxvi., fig. 256. 



The length of the male is 1^ lines, and that of the female 2 

 lines. There is, however, considerable variation in the size of 

 both sexes. 



The cephalo-thorax is similar in form to that of Epeira adianta ; 

 its colour is yellow-brown, the sides of the caput and the lateral 

 margins being suffused with a darker hue. 



The legs are long, and moderately strong ; they are of a 

 yellowish-brown colour, the femora of the first two pairs being 

 the darkest, and the third and fourth pairs having indistinct 

 brown annuli ; in the female all the legs are similarly annulatod. 

 The palpi (of the male) are short ; the cubital joint has a long, 

 strong, curved, tapering bristle, springing from a prominence in 

 front and directed forwards. The radial joint is obtusely pro- 

 tuberant on the outer side. The digital joint is rather large, 

 and has a small curved process at its base, the obtuse point of 

 which is directed outwards. The sternum is yellow-brown, with 

 indistinct dark margins. The abdomen is oval, broader and 

 considerably higher in front than behind, and with a very small 

 sub-angular prominence on each side of the fore-extremity of 

 the upper part ; this, however, is a character of the female only, 

 not of the male. 



The upper side is of a warm brown colour, spotted thickly 

 with black and white, the latter generally predominating ; on 

 the hinder part is a broad, dark, bluntly dentated band tapering 

 slightly to the spinners, broadly margined with black, and 

 spotted with white and black along the middle. This band has 

 the appearance of having been, as it were, intended to run 

 through to the fore-extremity, as fragments of a black margin 

 are visible in one or two places in continuation of the margins 

 of the band ; the foremost of these fragments form a nearly 

 complete, black, transverse line, which, with a strong black, 



