ERGATIS. 
149 
Ergatis latens. PI. IX, fig. 95. 
Ergatis latens, Blackw., Linn. Trans., vol. xviii, p. 608. 
— — Blackw., Linn. Trans., vol. xix, p. 117. 
— —• Blackw., Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist., second series, vol. viii, 
p. 100. 
Dictyna latens, Koch, Die Arachn., Band iii, p. 29, tab. 83, fig. 186. 
Theridion latens, Walck., Hist. Nat. des Insect. Apt., tom. ii, p. 340. 
Titulus 16, Lister, Hist. Animal. Angl., De Aran., p. 56, tab. i, fig. 16. 
Length of the female, ±th of an inch ; length of the ceplialo-thorax, ,' 5 th, breadth, ^th ; 
breadth of the abdomen, ^th; length of an anterior leg, ^th; length of a leg of the third 
pair, T 'oth. 
The cephalo-thorax is compressed before, very convex in the cephalic region, but 
depressed and rounded in front; the sides and posterior part are depressed, the former being 
marked with furrows which converge towards the middle; its colour is very dark-brown, the 
cephalic convexity being thinly covered with white hairs. The falces are powerful, conical, 
vertical, and armed with a few teeth on the inner surface ; the maxillae are strong, and inclined 
towards the lip, which is rounded at the apex; the sternum is heart-shaped. These parts 
are of a very dark-brown colour, the sternum being covered with coarse, white hairs. The 
legs and palpi are rather short, and their colour is dark-brown ; the two superior tarsal claws 
are curved and pectinated, and the inferior one is inflected near its base. The abdomen is 
oviform, convex above, projecting over the base of the cephalo-thorax; it is covered with 
short hairs, and of a gray colour, with a broad, dentated, black band extending along the 
middle of the upper part, which tapers to the extremities, and has some narrow, transverse, 
grayish lines on its posterior half; a plain, broad band of a similar colour, but rather paler, 
occupies the middle of the under part, and the sides have a blackish hue ; the colour of the 
branchial opercula is brown. 
In colour, and in the relative length of its legs, the male resembles the female, but it 
is smaller, and its falces, which are longer, have a large prominence on the under side, and a 
minute one in front, near their articulation; they are hollowed about the middle of the 
inner surface, leaving a strong prominence near the extremity, on the lower part of which a 
few small teeth are situated, and they are curved a little forwards at the end. The palpi 
and palpal organs are precisely similar in structure to those of the male of Ergatis benigna. 
This species is found in the same localities as Ergatis benigna, which it resembles in 
habits and economy. The sexes pair in June, and in the following month the female 
constructs several contiguous, lenticular cocoons of greenish-white silk, of a compact texture, 
measuring about one eighth of an inch in diameter, on an average : these she attaches to a stem 
of gorse or heath, surrounded by her web, distributing about them the refuse of her prey ; 
each contains from ten to sixteen spherical eggs, of a yellow colour, which are not adherent 
among themselves. 
