250 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 
and to an obtuse point, at the base, which overhangs the cephalothorax. A broad, creta- 
ceous or yellowish reticulated median band extends the whole length of the dorsum, 
somewhat narrowed at the ends; brownish, branching, longitudinal lines mark the middle 
of the dorsum towards the apex. The dorsal surface is covered with stout, short, curved 
bristles distributed symmetrically thereon; the basal point is tufted with bristles. The 
yenter shows a yellow, median longitudinal band, with brownish margins between the 
gills and the spinnerets, which are yellowish brown. The epigynum in the example 
before me is apparently not quite mature, but presents the appearance of a low atriolum, 
double notched on the edge (Fig. 8f), the scapus wanting, or expressed by a simple short 
fold at the base. : 
I think it probable that Epeira directa and KE. rubella of Hentz are identical, and that 
the drawings have become somewhat mixed on the plate; Hentz himself expresses the 
opinion (page 120), though with doubt, that his E. rubella may proye to be the young of 
E. directa. According to this author the spider is found generally near water, where it 
makes a perpendicular web upon low bushes. When approached it drops and remains 
motionless where it falls. He found in Alabama a specimen with four minute blackish 
spots upon the abdomen, which may indicate the variety drawn. (Fig. 3c.) The male was 
found by Hentz with black dots all over the legs, except the thighs, and also with black 
dots on each side of the abdomen, but evidently the same species, of which he adds that 
it is nocturnal in its habits. According to Cambridge (E. tetragnathoides) the male palps 
have short cubital joints, somewhat angular in front, with two very long, strong, tapering, 
divergent bristles. The radial joint is obtusely produced on its outer edge; the palpal bulb 
small. 
Disrripution: North Carolina (Plate XXII, Fig. 3); Indian River, Florida. Hentz col- 
lected in Alabama and South Carolina. The specimens described by Mr. Cambridge are 
from Guatemala and Panama, and although they show some variations in color and markings 
from those found in the Southern United States, appear to be the same. The distribution 
is therefore throughout the Southern United States and North America, and probably in 
the Northern States of South America. I believe that it lives at least as far north as New 
Jersey. ; 
Genus NEPHILA, Leacn, 1815. 
The genus Nephila, of which we have several known species, is confined to the 
southern and southwestern belt of the United States. It is distinguished by an oval 
cephalothorax, of nearly equal width throughout, whose base is flat and low. The 
caput is elevated and arched, quadrate, and wide at the face; in some species, on the base 
thereof, near the fosse, is a pair of corneous tubercles. The skin is hard, and usually 
covered, except on the smooth marginal walls, with a close coating of lustrous white hair, 
which gives the organ a metallic brightness. The length of the sternum differs little 
from its width, is marked by decided sternal cones, with a glossy and hard skin, covered 
with metallic hairs. The labium is longer than wide, thick at the base, and the maxillee 
especially are decidedly longer than wide, compressed at the shank and rounded at the 
tips. The eyes are arranged in three groups, ordinarily placed upon decided tubercles; 
the ocular quad is usually longer than wide; the side eyes well separated; the front row 
procuryed and the rear row recuryed, or nearly aligned. The legs are long, rather 
attenuated, the thighs not stout, the metatarsus relatively much longer than the tarsus, and 
the apical part of one or more of the joints usually provided with a brushlike appendage 
on one or both sides. The abdomen is much longer than wide, cylindrical, brilliantly 
colored, and provided with numerous hairs, of a metallic, silvery lustre, which give the 
animal an unusually beautiful and brilliant appearance. The epigynum has commonly a 
hard, vaulted atriolum, and is without a scapus. The males of this genus are very much 
smaller than the females, and do not closely resemble them. The snare is an immense 
orb, woven in forests and woods, whose spirals are composed of successive, nearly circular, 
loops. 
