1388 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 
E. strix, bringing it into the front row. MF are separated from SF by about 1.3 their 
area, and from the margin of the clypeus by about two diameters. Front row is recurved, 
the rear row, which is much the longer, procurved. 
Leos: Strong and stout; covered with gray hairs, rather sparsely with bristles, and 
with numerous yellow or blackish spines. The femora are yellow, or orange yellow, with 
broad dark brown or blackish terminal bands, which also encompass the patella, The tibia 
and metatarsus have dark brown annuli at the ends, and a broad one of similar color in 
the middle. Feet black, with a yellow band at the articulation with the metatarsus; palps 
heavily armed with gray bristles and long yellow spines, are colored as the legs, but lighter. 
Mandibles conical, arched at the base, where they slightly project beyond the clypeus; dark 
glossy brown or blackish brown in color; not so much contracted at the tips, nor so 
greatly arched at the base as BE. strix. 
Appomen: A long oyal, narrowing at the apex to the spinnerets, which are distal. 
The dorsal folium (Plate IT., Fig. 10) is sharply outlined by a narrow undulating border of 
gray hairs, broadest at the base, and gradually diminishing in width to the spinnerets. A 
lance head point projects forward along the front from the basal part of this marginal line. 
The line is interrupted about one-third the distance from the base, giving it in many exam- 
ples the appearance of two separate figures, the apical portion thereof being a triangle with 
scalloped edges, and a lance headed figure projecting from the middle. The general colors 
of the dorsum are blackish brown, the sides are mottled with gray waving longitudinal 
lines formed, like the dorsal figure, of long gray hairs. The venter isa wide trapezoidal 
figure, blackish brown in color, with yellowish gray lunettes on either side, The spinnerets 
are surrounded with black, and are themselves blackish or dark brown in color. The 
epigynum (Plate 1, Fig. 9) has a narrow scapus but little widened at the base, and nar- 
rowing down to the portule on either side, which are prominent and present at times 
the appearance of the figure, but at others more compacted, and rather resembling the 
portulze of Epeira patagiata. (Fig. 11a.) 
Mare: Length, 7 mm.; in markings and general color closely resembles the female. 
The cephalothorax is more rounded and of a uniform bright brown color, apparently not 
so heavily haired, pubescent upon the top of the corselet, but with a marked ring of 
gray hairs encompassing the margin, and also along the edges of the caput to the eye 
space. The median fosse is a longitudinal slit. The sternum is rather more cordate in 
shape; the legs much longer and relatively thinner than in the female. The second leg is 
not specialized in any way, and there appears to be no special clasping spines or armatures at 
any point; the femora, especially of the first two pairs, are mottled beneath with dark brown 
spots, which sometimes may also be obseryed in the female. The character of the palp is 
shown at Plate I., 9a. It is easily distinguished from the male of FE. strix, not only by the 
general appearance and character of the palpal bulb, but more easily at once by the absence 
of the curved metatarsus and the series of strong, black clasping spines upon the inside 
of the second tibia which characterize Strix. The first leg of Strix, also, is more heavily 
armed at the thickened tibia with numerous black spines. 
Distrisution: Epeira sclopetaria is a common spider in many sections of the country. 
It is abundant along the seashore of New England and New Jersey. It is also found 
around the outhouses, stables, etc., in the neighborhood of Philadelphia. Hentz described 
it from South Carolina. Specimens are common in collections from the West, and it is, 
probably distributed over the entire United States. It is also a European species of general 
distribution from Sweden southward, and probably shares with HE. patagiata a world wide 
distribution through the northern temperate zone. 
No. 2. Epeira patagiata (Crierck). Plate I, Fig. 11; Pl. IIL, Figs. 8, 9. 
1757. Araneus patagiatus, Currck . . . Aranei Syecici, p. 38, pl. 1, tab. 10. 
1834. Lpeira dumetorum, Hann .. . . Die Arachn., ii, p. 31, tab. 48, Fig. 117. 
1837. Epeira dumetorum, Kocu . . . . Uebersicht des Arachniden-Systems, heft 1., p. 2. 
