29 



Of this species Westring had only met with young, immature 

 specimens: in such the head is sometimes darker than the cephalo- 

 thorax, and the legs without rings. In fully developed individuals 

 the cephalothorax is uniformly dark brown, and the joints of the 

 legs, especially the foremost thighs, darker towards the end. That 

 Westring's S. melartocephala is the same as C. Koch's «S. hamata, 

 is so much the more certain, as that Westking received from me 

 some of the specimens he has described; 1 have also since found 

 both male and female fullgrown individuals of that species at Satra 

 in Westmanland, which Koch's description of .S. hamata exactly suits, 

 and which in no respect differ from the 'specimens of S. hamata, 

 which I collected at Kissingen in Bavaria. Moreover C. Koch's S. 

 melanocephala is most assuredly nothing more than a variety of S. 

 hamata (probably taken immediately after the shedding of the skin), 

 as both Blac wall and Menge supposed. 



Westring doubts whether Clerck's Ar. hamatus be identical with 

 the spider before us, but certainly without reason. That S. hamata 

 C. Koch is not to be found in Clerck's original collection of spiders, 

 proves nothing, for this is also the case with many other spiders 

 which Clerck unquestionably has described. (Vid. Thorell, Om Clerck's 

 original-spindelsamling, in Ofversigt af Vet.-Akad. Forhandl., 1858, 

 p. 147). That Clerck reckoned Ar. hamatns among his " Irregulares" 

 or the family Theridioidee, should the less astonish us, as the genus 

 Singa shows really no small analogy with that family, and even a 

 so distinguished arachnologist as Sundevall could describe another 

 species of the genus (S. pygmcea) as a Theridium. Clerck had never 

 seen the web of this species, and his mistake is therefore quite 

 excusable. Westrixg himself says of Singa (p. 51): "Ketia mihi 

 ignota" 1 )- 



1) P. 15 we find: Tetia generis Singce ignota.'" This is however a mistake, 

 for already Lister says of his r Tit. VII, Araneus pullus cruciger ghibcr, albo 

 plena ovali," or our Singa hamata: r Medio Maio, si faveat tempestas serena, 

 reticula orhiculata conficiunt prope nidos" (Hist. Anim. Angl. tres tract., unus de 

 Araneis etc., p. 41); and of the same species {Ar. tubulosa Latr.), Latreille 

 says: r Elle fait sur les buissons et dans les ble's une toile verticale et se pratique 

 a la partie superieure, sous une feuille, un petit tube assez long de soie blanche 

 et serree ou elle est a l'affut de sa proie." (Hist. Nat d. Crust, et d. Ins., VH, 

 p. 263). — The web of S. Herii is mentioned by Hahn (Die Arachn., I, p. 9). 



