DESCRIPTION OF GENERA AND SPECIES. 219 
one, is palm shaped, and strongly toothed upon the edge. (See Plate II., Fig. 6.) The 
males are found hanging upon the outer borders of the female’s snare during August and 
September, sometimes several individuals being in attendance upon one female. 
Disrrisution: This fine spider, whose habits are so fully given in Volumes I. and II. 
of this work, is well known to all frequenters of our fields, and is familiar to even the 
most careless observer. It inhabits grasses, bushes, and generally low positions, on which it 
spins a strong web, the central portion of which is covered thickly with a white shield- 
like patch, from either extremity of which proceeds a broad zigzag ribbon. It is able to 
capture the strongest insects in its mature stages; and feeds largely upon grasshoppers and 
locusts. Its geographical distribution is almost coterminous with the United States. I have 
collected specimens in New England, as far north .as Massachusetts, Connecticut, and 
Northern Illinois (Chicago), and southward along the Atlantic Coast as far as Florida. To 
the southwest I have taken specimens in Texas, and have them from the Pacific Coast as 
far south as San Diego, California. I also have specimens from the Rocky Mountains, and 
from various points along the great plains and prairies, both east and west of the Mississippi 
River. Northward specimens have been obtained from Minnesota and Wisconsin. It may 
therefore be considered as distributed throughout the entire United States. In all locations 
it appears to preserve the same habits, spins the same sort of web and cocoon, and, 
whether in Southern California or Northern New England, remains in shape, color, and size 
substantially the same, 
ie 72. Argiope argyraspis (Watckenarr). Plate XV, Fig. 8; Pl. XVI, Figs. 3, 4. 
1837. petra argyraspides, W ALCKENAER.* Ins. Apt., ii., p. 110; Assor, G. S., No. | 
1847. Hpeira fasciata, Hentz... .. J. B.S, v., p. 468; Sp. U. S., p. 107, xii, 8. 
1873. <Argiope fasciata, L. Kocw. . . . Arachniden Australiens, p. 133; pl. 10, Fig. 5. 
1882. Argiope fasciata, McCook . . . . Proceed. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., p. 256. 
1884. Argiope transvera, Emerton . . . N. E. Ep., p. 330, pl. 24, Fig. 20. 
1888. Argiope argyraspides, McCook . . Proceed. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., p. 1. 
1889. Argiope argyraspis,s5 McCook . . Amer. Spiders and their Spinningwork, Vol. I. 
1890. Argiope argyraspides, Marx. . . Catalogue, p. 541. 
Fremate: Total length, 19 mm.; abdomen, 12 mm. long, 9 mm. wide; cephalothorax, 
6.5 mm. long, 6 mm. wide, 3 mm. at the face. This spider is distinguished at once from 
its congener, A. cophinaria, by the color and shape of its abdomen, which is truncated at 
the base and pointed at the apex, in the younger specimens quite decidedly so, though the 
young of cophinaria have the same form. The spinnerets are located rather further under- 
neath, the abdomen being placed at least one-third of the distance from apex to base. 
(Plate XV., Fig. 8.) Adult specimens differ much in size, from 16 mm. or less in length to 
25 or 30 mm., as with some specimens from Southern California. 
CrreHaLorHoraAx: <A long oval; the corselet rounded at the margin, broadly truncated, 
and indented at the base, low and flat; the fosse a conical pit; skin yellow, with wide 
brownish patches on either side of the broad yellow median line; the margin yellow, with 
strong grayish yellow bristles; the whole surface so covered with silvery white hairs that it 
has a silvery gray lustre; caput narrow at the base, compressed at the middle, colored and 
armored as the corselet, somewhat contracted towards the face. Sternum shield shape, wide 
at base, rather rounded at margins, obtusely triangular at the apex, the centre a broad 
yellow band; strong yellow sternal cones; color of margins brown; the surface covered 
thickly with strong hairs and stiff brownish bristles. Labium subtriangular, yellow, with 
but a fleck of brown at the base, as are also the maxille, which are somewhat longer than 
wide, and sparsely covered with brown, curved, strong, spinous bristles. 
+The proper term is undoubtedly ‘“‘argyraspis,’”’ and I use it in accordance with the author’s 
liberty to correct obvious errors in spelling. 
