DRASSUS. 
115 
pectinated claws; the palpi have a single curved, pectinated claw at their extremity. These 
parts are of a pale, reddish-brown colour, the margins of the cephalo-thorax, sternum, and lip 
having a blackish tint. The eyes are disposed on the anterior part of the cephalo-thorax in 
two transverse, somewhat curved rows, having their convexity directed backwards; the 
posterior row is rather the longer, and the intermediate eyes, which are oval and nearer to 
each other than they are to the lateral eyes of the same row, form a quadrangle 
with the intermediate eyes of the anterior row. The abdomen is of an oblong-oviform 
figure, densely covered with short hairs of a bright, reddish-copper colour, the under 
part being the palest; at its anterior extremity, contiguous to the cephalo-thorax, there is 
a tuft of long, deep-black hairs, from which a band of a blackish hue, broad before and 
tapering to a point behind, extends along the middle of the upper part rather more than half 
its length; the spinners are prominent and cylindrical, the inferior pair being the most con¬ 
spicuous when in a state of repose; and the branchial opercula are large and of a pale-yellow 
colour. The dark band on the upper part of the abdomen is not perceptible in some 
individuals, and the abdomen of the female, after the completion of her parental functions, 
frequently assumes a grayish-browm hue. 
The sexes closely resemble each other in colour, but the male is smaller than the female; 
its falces are longer, more prominent, and less powerful, and the relative length of its legs is 
different, the first pair being rather longer than the fourth. The radial joint of the palpi is 
longer than the cubital, and projects two pointed, corneous apophyses from its extremity, one 
on the outer side, and the other, which is very minute, underneath; the digital joint is of an 
oblong-oval form, convex and hairy externally, with a cavity on the under side, at the base, 
containing the palpal organs, which are neither highly developed nor very complex in 
structure, having a small, dark protuberance near their extremity, towards the outer side, and 
a fine, pointed spine, directed downwards, opposite to it, on the inner side; their colour is 
red-brown. 
Though the Drassus rufus of M. Koch, identical with Drassus cupreus, is regarded by 
Walckenaer as a variety of Clubiona livida (‘Hist. Nat. des Insect. Apt.,’ tom. ii, p. 479), yet 
it possesses all the characteristics of a Drassus in so marked a degree that it might be selected 
as a type of the genus; consequently, the name originally given to it is retained. 
As regards the papillae connected with the inferior spinners of this species, which occurs 
under stones in various parts of Great Britain and Ireland, the same law of development holds 
good to which attention has been directed in treating upon Drassus ater and Drassus sericeus ; 
moreover, the number of papillae is not uniformly the same even in adults of any of these 
spiders, but the two minute ones belonging to each spinner are always present. 
In June the female constructs a lenticular cocoon of white silk, of a fine but compact 
texture, measuring two fifths of an inch in diameter, in which she deposits about 118 spherical 
eggs, of a pale-yellow colour, not agglutinated together. The cocoon is enveloped in a large 
sac of very fine, white silk, usually placed in a cavity of the earth underneath a stone, and 
this sac generally comprises the female. 
