THERIDION. 
183 
closed above, open below, thickly covered externally with particles of indurated earth, small 
stones, and withered leaves and flowers, which are incorporated with it, and is suspended 
perpendicularly in the snare by lines attached to its sides and apex. In the upper part of 
this singular domicile the female constructs several globular cocoons of yellowish-white silk, of 
a slight texture, having a mean diameter of about one eighth of an inch, in each of which she 
deposits from twenty to sixty small spherical eggs of a pale, yellowish-white colour, not 
agglutinated together. The young, after quitting the cocoons, remain a long time with the 
female, and are supplied by her with food, which consists chiefly of ants. 
Theridion nervosum. PI. XIII, fig. 116. 
Theridion nervosum, Walck., Hist. Nat. des Insect. Apt., tom. ii, p. 301. 
— — Hahn, Die Arachn., Band ii, p. 48, tab. 58, fig. 133. 
— — Blackw., Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist., second series, vol. viii, 
p. 442. 
— Sisyphus, Sund., Yet. Acad. Handl., 1831, p. 115. 
Theridium — Koch, Uebers. des Arachn. Syst., erstes Heft, p. 8. 
— — Koch, Die Arachn., Band viii, p. 73, tab. 273, fig. 644. 
Titulus 13, Lister, Hist. Animal. Angl. De Aran., p. 51, tab. 1, fig. 13. 
Length of the female, ith of an inch; length of the cephalo-thorax, ,4th, breadth, T l B th; 
breadth of the abdomen, 4th; length of an anterior leg, 4ths; length of a leg of the third 
pair, 
The four intermediate eyes form a square, the two anterior ones, which are the darkest 
and rather the largest of the eight, being seated on a protuberance; those constituting each 
lateral pair are placed.obliquely on a small tubercle and are nearly in contact. The cephalo- 
thorax is convex, glossy, slightly compressed before, rounded on the sides, and has a large 
indentation in the medial line; it is of a dull-yellow colour, with dark, reddish-brown lateral 
margins, and a broad band of the same hue extending along the middle. The falces are 
conical, vertical, and have a yellowish-brown tint. The maxillae are convex at the base, 
strongly inclined towards the lip, and of a pale, red-brown colour. The lip is semicircular, 
and has a brownish hue. The sternum is heart-shaped, and of a dull-yellow colour, with 
narrow, pale, red-brown margins. The legs are moderately long, provided with hairs, and 
have a yellowish-brown tint, with pale, red-brown annuli at the joints; the first pair is the 
longest, then the fourth, and the third pair is the shortest; the two superior tarsal claws are 
curved and pectinated, and the inferior one is inflected near its base. The palpi are short, 
of a yellowish-biwn colour, and are terminated by a curved, pectinated claw. The abdomen 
is glossy, thinly clothed with hairs, subglobose, pointed at the spinners, and projects over the 
base of the cephalo-thorax; in the medial line of the upper part there is a broad, pale, red- 
brown band, which is thickly spotted with white anteriorly, and comprises a longitudinal, 
yellowish-white line situated above the anus; this band is bounded on each side by a broad, 
