112 
DRASSIDiE. 
are prominent and convex at the upper part, somewhat pointed at the extremity, and of a 
reddish-brown colour. 
Drassus sericeus has been obtained in several of the northern counties of England and 
Wales. It frequents the interior of houses, especially such as are old, and is decidedly 
nocturnal in its habits. Like other species of the genus, it is enabled to run with facility on 
the perpendicular surfaces of dry, polished bodies by the emission of an adhesive secretion 
from the hair-like papillae on the inferior surface of its tarsi. The papillae connected with the 
terminal joint of each inferior spinner not only vary in number with the age of the spider, the 
full complement being nine large and two small ones, but a like number does not constantly 
occur on both spinners of the same individual. 
Drassus reticulatus. 
Drassus reticulatus, Blackw., Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist., second series, vol. x, 
p. 97. 
— — Blackw., Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist., second series, vol. xi, 
p. 115. 
Length of the female, |ths of an inch; length of the cephalo-thorax, gth, breadth, |th ; 
breadth of the abdomen, »th ; length of a posterior leg, ^ths; length of a leg of the third 
pair, fjjths. 
The eyes are round, and are disposed on the anterior part of the cephalo-thorax in two 
nearly parallel, transverse rows ; the posterior row is rather the longer; and the intermediate 
eyes, which are the smallest, and nearer to each other than they are to the lateral eyes of the 
same row, form a square with the intermediate eyes of the anterior row, which are much the 
largest of the eight, and black, all the others being diaphanous. The cephalo-thorax is oval, 
convex, pointed before, and thinly covered with hairs; the maxillae are long, convex at the 
base, depressed near the middle, enlarged at the extremity, which is obliquely truncated on 
the inner side, and curved towards the lip, which is long, oval, and rounded at the apex; the 
sternum is oval, broader in the posterior than in the anterior region, and supplied with hairs, 
which are densest on the margins; the legs are robust, moderately hairy, and provided with 
a few sessile spines; the fourth p&ir is the longest, the first slightly surpasses the second, and 
the third pair is the shortest; each tarsus has hair-like papillae on the under side, and two 
curved, pectinated claws at its extremity. These parts, with the palpi, are of a yellowish- 
brown colour, the digital joint of the latter and the lip being the darkest. The falces are 
powerful, conical, armed with one or two very minute teeth on the inner surface, slightly 
prominent, and of a red-brown hue. The abdomen is of an elongated oviform figure, pro¬ 
jecting a little over the base of the cephalo-thorax ; it is sparingly clothed with short, 
whitish hairs, and is of a pale, olive-brown colour, reticulated with fine, dull, yellowish-white 
t I” 1 - ■ -'* 
