184 
THERIDIIDiE. 
brownish-black band, intersected by several white lines ; the sides have a brownish or 
greenish-yellow hue, and are densely mottled with white at the upper part, contiguous to the 
outer margin of the brownish-black bands; an obscure, red-brown line extends in a sharp 
curve from their anterior extremity to the under part, which has a dull-yellow or greenish- 
yellow tint; a brownish-black angular line, having its vertex directed forwards, is situated 
immediately before the sexual organs, and a spot of the same hue occurs near the spinners; 
the sexual organs are small, and of a dark, reddish-brown colour; and the branchial opercula 
have a yellow tint. This species varies in colour, some individuals being much darker than 
others, but the white lines which intersect the brownish-black bands on the upper part of 
the abdomen are generally present. 
The sexes are similar in colour, but the male is smaller than the female, and the design 
on its oviform abdomen is less distinctly marked. The colour of its palpi is yellowish-brown, 
with the exception of the digital joint, which has a dark, reddish-brown tint ; the humeral 
joint is very gibbous near the base, on the outer side, and on this enlargement there are 
numerous short, black spines, each of which is terminated by a fine hair; the cubital and 
radial joints are short, the latter being produced at its extremity, on the outer side; the 
digital joint is oval, convex, and hairy externally, concave within, comprising the palpal 
organs, which are moderately developed, not very complex in structure, and of a dark, 
reddish-brown colour. The convex sides of the digital joints are directed towards each 
other. 
A complex snare, having somewhat of a pyramidal form, is spun on trees, shrubs, gorse- 
bushes, and heath, by this common spider, which is widely distributed in Great Britain and 
Ireland. It pairs in June, and in July the female constructs a globular cocoon of dull-green 
silk, of a loose texture, measuring one eighth of an inch in diameter, which includes from 
thirty to forty small, yellowish-white, spherical eggs, not adherent among themselves. This 
cocoon is placed under a shallow, dome-shaped canopy of silk, about which withered leaves, 
flowers, and the remains of insects are accumulated; it is situated among the foliage near 
the upper part of the snare, and in this nidus the young live amicably together with the female 
till they are capable of providing for themselves, when they separate. 
Like its congeners, this species envelops with lines drawn from the spinners by means 
of the posterior legs such insects as are too powerful for it to attack when first entangled in 
its toils. 
Theridion pictum. Pl. XIII, fig. 117. 
Theridion pictum, Walck., Hist. Nat. des Insect. Apt., tom. ii, p. 304. 
— — Walck., Hist. Nat. des Insect. Apt., tom. iv, p. 489. 
— — Hahn, Die Arachn., Band i, p. 90, tab. 22, fig. 68. 
— — Blackw., Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist., second series, vol. xiv, 
p. 31. 
Steatoda — Koch, Uebers. des Arachn. Syst., erstes Heft, p. 9. 
Theridium — Koch, Die Arachn., Band xii, p. 139, tab. 429, figs. 1062, 1063. 
