422 
CLASS ARACHNIDES. 
spread solitary threads to retain it, and conceal themselves in 
clefts, or in leaves which they draw together to lay their 
eggs in. 
Some have the body flatted, broad, the abdomen short, 
widened posteriorly, and the four intermediate feet more elon- 
gated. Such is the Philodrome tigre, (Thomise tigree , Lat., 
Araneus margaritarius , Clerck, VI. iii. Schoeff, Icon. lxxi. 8; 
Frisch., Ins., 10. centur. II. xiv. ; Aranea levipes, Lin.) This 
species is three lines in length. Its two intermediate anterior 
eyes, and the four lateral, are situated on a space a little more 
elevated, and the lateral, according to the same naturalist, 
are a little larger, or at least more apparent. The thorax is 
very broad, flatted, of a reddish fawn-colour, brown laterally, 
and posteriorly, and white in front ; the abdomen, which 
appears to form a pentagon, is striped like a tiger, by means 
of the red, brown, and white hairs, with which it is invested. 
It is edged with brown on the sides, and has at the middle of 
the back, four or six sunken points ; the belly is whitish ; the 
feet are long, slender, reddish, with brown spots. 
This species is very common on trees, wooden partitions, 
walls, &c., and sticks there with the feet extended, and as it 
were glued. As soon as touched, it takes to flight with ex- 
treme rapidity, or suffers itself to fall by unwinding a thread 
which supports it. Its cocoon is of a fine white, and contains 
about one hundred eggs, which are yellow, and not agglu- 
tinated. It places it in the clefts of trees, or of posts exposed 
to the north, and watches it assiduously. 
The other philodromi, which in the method of M. Walcke- 
naer, form many small groups, have the body, and sometimes 
the forceps, proportionally longer. The abdomen is some- 
times pyriform or ovoid, sometimes cylindrical; the second 
pair of feet, and then the first or fourth, are the longest. 
We shall cite the Philodromns rhombiferus (Faun., Franc, 
araneide, vi. 8, male). Its body is three lines and a half in 
