TEGENARIA. 
167 
The four intermediate eyes form a trapezoid, the two constituting its anterior side, 
which is rather the shortest, being the smallest of the eight; the eyes of each lateral pair 
are placed obliquely on a small tubercle, but are not contiguous. The cephalo-thorax is 
compressed before, rounded on the sides, convex, hairy, and slightly glossy ; it has a pale, 
reddish-brown tint; but the lateral margins and a broad band extending along each side are 
soot-coloured. The falces are powerful, conical, vertical, and are provided with two rows of 
teeth, and some long, reddish hairs on the inner surface; the maxillae are strong ; the lip is 
rather longer than broad, and its extremity is slightly notched. These organs are of a 
reddish-brown colour; the falces are the darkest, and the extremities of the maxillae and lip 
have a yellowish-brown tint. The sternum is heart-shaped; it is of a reddish-brown hue, 
with faint, soot-coloured annuli on the sides, opposite to the legs. The legs and palpi are 
long, slender, supplied with hairs and sessile spines, and are of a reddish-brown colour ; the 
metatarsi and tarsi of the former, and the radial and digital joints of the latter, being the 
darkest; the thighs and tibiae are marked with several obscure, soot-coloured annuli, those 
on the former being the most conspicuous. The fourth pair of legs is the longest, then the 
first, 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, on 
each side of which there are two fine teeth. The palpi have a curved, pectinated claw at 
their extremity. The abdomen is oviform, thickly covered with hairs, convex above, pro¬ 
jecting over the base of the cephalo-thorax ; it is of a yellowish-brown hue, with a series of 
triangular, soot-coloured spots, the anterior one of which is the largest, extending along the 
middle of the upper part; the sides are marked with oblique rows of soot-coloured spots, 
more or less confluent, and on the under part there are three imperfectly defined, longitu¬ 
dinal, soot-coloured bands ; the spinners have a yellowish-brown tint; the two superior ones 
are the longest, are triarticulate, and have the spinning-tubes disposed on the inferior surface 
of the terminal joint; the sexual organs, which are minute, have a red-brown hue; and the 
colour of the branchial opercula is yellowish-white. This spider has sometimes a pale, 
reddish-brown tint, and the soot-coloured marks are subject to slight modifications of form 
and size. Like some other species of the family Agelenida , Tegenaria civilis has numerous 
compound, sessile hairs on its body and limbs. 
The male bears a near resemblance to the female, and the relative length of its legs is 
the same, but the thighs are of a dark, reddish-brown colour, with only a faint appearance 
of annuli. The cubital and radial joints of the palpi are short, and the latter, which is the 
larger, projects a strong, black, pointed, corneous apophysis from its extremity, on the outer 
side ; the digital joint is long, hairy, convex above, at the base, but cylindrical and pointed 
at the end; the palpal organs are connected with a cavity on the under side of the basal 
convexity, and are moderately developed, rather complicated in structure, with a strong, 
black, curved spine near their extremity, and a prominent, pointed, semi-transparent process 
on the outer side, below which, and almost contiguous to it, there is a process whose 
extremity is crescent-shaped; their colour is red-brown. 
The habits and economy of this common spider are very similar to those of Tegenaria 
domestica , for which it has frequently been mistaken, even naturalists of high authority 
having included references to Lister’s description and figure of it among the synonyma of 
that species. During the summer and autumn, the female constructs several lenticular 
