160 
AGELENIDiE. 
situated immediately above the frontal margin, are rather larger than those of the posterior 
row, the two intermediate ones being the largest of the eight. The cephalo-thorax is convex, 
somewhat hairy, compressed before, and rounded on the sides, which are depressed, and 
marked with furrows converging towards the middle; it is of a red-brown colour, with fine, 
brownish-black, lateral margins, and lines of the same hue, on each side, describing narrow, 
oblique triangles, whose vertices are directed towards the middle, the small area enclosed by 
each being of a red-brown hue. The falces are strong, conical, vertical, prominent at the 
base, and armed with a few teeth on the inner surface; the maxillae are short, convex, 
rounded at the extremity, and slightly inclined towards the lip, which is Nearly quadrate, 
being rather broader at the base than at the extremity ; the sternum is heart-shaped ; the 
legs and palpi are moderately long and robust, and are provided with hairs and spines. 
These parts are of a red-brown colour, the lip being the darkest. Each tarsus is terminated 
by two curved, deeply pectinated claws, and the palpi have a curved, pectinated claw at 
their extremity. The abdomen is oviform, hairy, somewhat larger at the posterior than at 
the anterior extremity, convex above, and projects over the base of the cephalo-thorax; its 
colour is yellow-brown, a series of brownish-black, angular lines, whose vertices are directed 
forwards, extending along the middle of the upper part; the sides are marked with spots of 
a brownish-black hue; those on their posterior half are sometimes confluent, forming oblique 
lines, and an irregular spot of a larger size occurs on each side of the spinners ; on the under 
part there are three faint, longitudinal bands of a dull-brown colour, which meet at the 
posterior extremity, where the short spinners are situated; the sexual organs have a dark, 
reddish-brown tint; and the colour of the branchial opercula is yellow. 
In the design formed by the distribution of their colours the sexes resemble each other, 
but the male is rather the smaller. The cubital and radial joints of its palpi are short; the 
former is the stronger, and the latter has a long, acute apophysis, bent downwards at the 
point, projecting from the outer side of its extremity ; the digital joint is oval, convex and 
hairy externally, concave within, comprising the palpal organs, which are highly developed, 
prominent, complicated in structure, with several curved, pointed, corneous processes at the 
extremity, and are of a red-brown colour. 
Agelena brunnea is of rare occurrence in woods in the valley of the Conway. The sexes 
pair in May, and in the same month the female constructs an elegant, vase-shaped cocoon of 
white silk, of a fine, compact texture, attached by a short foot-stalk to rushes, the stems of 
grass, heath, or gorse; it measures about one fourth of an inch in diameter, and contains 
from forty to fifty yellowish-white, spherical eggs, enveloped in white silk connected with the 
interior surface of the cocoon contiguous to the foot-stalk. Greatly to the disadvantage of 
its appearance, the entire cocoon is smeared with moist soil, wdiich, drying, serves to protect 
it from the w r eather, and, as an additional security, the extremity is closed and directed 
downwards. 
Mr. J. Hardy has found this species in Berwickshire. 
