375 



The male of this spider can hardly be mistaken, in the adult 

 state, for any other Lycosa indigenous to Britain. The broad 

 longitudinal, central band on the cephalo-thorax, being almost 

 of equal width throughout, and thickly clothed with white hairs 

 forming a striking contrast to the black hue of the rest of the 

 surface. The abdomen also is black, clothed with white hairs on 

 the fore part, and, indeed, often on the upper side generally. 

 The legs are long, not very strong, of a brownish colour, the 

 femora being suffused with black. 



The palpi are long, and of a blackish-brown hue, the radial 

 joint thickly clothod with black hairs. Tho digital joint is of a 

 rathor narrow, olongato-oval form. Tho palpal organs have a 

 slightly curved, oblique taporing, pointed spine, directod forwards 

 from near their centre. 



In the female, the thoracic band is of a pale brownish or 

 yellow-brown hue, without the white hairs which render the 

 male so conspicuous, and tapers more towards tho posterior 

 extremity; there are also two obscure, parallel, yellow-brown 

 lines near the lateral margins on each side. The abdomen is of 

 a yollowish-brown colour ; the normal marking on the foro half 

 of the upper side is of a paler hue, indistinctly edged with black, 

 with a prominent black point on each side near the middlo, and 

 truncated at its hinder extremity, which is narrower than the 

 central part. On each side of the fore extremity of the abdomen 

 is a largish black patch, and a tuft of pale hairs in tho middle 

 between the black patches. The angular bars are indistinct. 

 Their extromitios form on each side a longitudinal row of 

 blackish-brown blotches, the spaces between which are of a pale 

 huo, forming two converging lines of alternate black and pale 

 yellow-brown spots. The sides are mottled with blackish brown. 



Tho legs also, in the female, differ from those of tho male in 

 being of a reddish-brown colour, annulated with dark brown. 



This spider appears to be almost exclusively an inhabitant of 

 woods ; at least, I have never myself met with it in any other 

 situation than in, or close by, plantations, woods, and coppices ; 

 in such situations in the neighbourhood of Bloxworth it is 



