38 
LYCOSIDiE. 
resemble the falces in colour, but are paler; and the lip has a dark-brown hue, with red- 
brown margins. The sternum is heart-shaped, of a dark-brown colour, with a longitudinal, 
yellowish-brown band in the middle, and is covered with yellowish-white hairs. The legs are 
long and robust, and are provided with short hairs and spines; their colour is yellowish- 
brown, with the exception of the tarsi, which have a dark-brown hue ; the fourth pair is the 
longest, then the second, and the third pair is the shortest; each tarsus is terminated by 
three claws; the two superior ones are curved and pectinated, and the inferior one is inflected 
near its base, which is supplied with a few very minute teeth. The palpi are strong, of' a 
yellowish-brown colour, and have a curved, pectinated claw at their extremity. The abdomen 
is of an oblong oviform figure, projecting a little over the base of the cephalo-thorax, and 
tapering to the spinners; it is thickly covered with short hairs of a yellowish-brown colour 
above, and has a series of obscure, angular lines of a darker hue, whose vertices are directed 
forwards, extending along the middle, and a large angular line of a dull, yellowish-white tint 
at the anterior extremity; on each side of the upper part there is a longitudinal, sinuous, 
yellowish-white band, below which the sides have a brownish hue; the under part has a pale, 
yellowish-white tint, with a few lighter coloured spots interspersed; and the colour of the 
branchial opercula is brown, their inner margin being tinged with pale-yellow. 
The male bears a strong resemblance to the female; but it is rather smaller and more 
distinctly marked, the lighter shades of colour being much paler, and the darker ones more 
intense. The cubital and radial joints of the palpi are short; the latter projects a large 
apophysis from its extremity, on the outer side, which tapers to a curved point, and has a 
tuft of hairs on its outer part, near the base; the digital joint is oval, hairy, very convex 
externally, concave within, comprising the palpal organs, which are highly developed, 
prominent, complicated in structure, with a strong, curved process on the outer side, whose 
termination constitutes their extremity, and are of a reddish-brown colour. 
Both sexes have compound, sessile hairs on various parts of their limbs and body. They 
present much diversity of tint in their several stages of growth ; and the female, after having 
deposited her eggs, becomes of a dark-gray colour. 
Well-wooded districts in England and Wales are the favorite haunts of this handsome 
spider, which, even in the adult state, varies greatly in colour. The Ocyale murina of 
M. Koch, described by that arachnologist as a distinct species, is merely the female of 
Dolomedes mirabilis after she has exercised her parental functions. In June the female 
constructs a globular cocoon of dull, yellow-coloured silk, of a compact texture and rough 
exterior surface, measuring three tenths of an inch in diameter, in which she deposits between 
220 and 240 eggs of a spherical form and dull-yellow colour, not agglutinated together. 
This cocoon, for which she manifests a strong feeling of attachment, is carried underneath 
the sternum, and retained in that situation by means of the falces and palpi, additional 
support being usually supplied by silken lines connecting it with the spinners; this latter 
circumstance, it will be perceived, furnishes a new link in the chain of analogies which 
connect the genus Dolomedes with that of Lycosa. When the young are about to quit the 
.cocoon, the female spins a large dome-shaped web among grass or low bushes, under which 
she retires with her treasure, and her progeny, on being extricated from their silken envelope, 
cluster together on lines spun by themselves beneath the dome, where they remain till they 
are capable of providing for their own sustenance. 
