192 
TIlERIDIIDiE. 
size; the four intermediate ones form a square, the two anterior ones being the darkest and 
rather the largest of the eight; those constituting each lateral pair are seated on a small 
tubercle, and are contiguous. The abdomen is sparingly clothed with hairs, very convex 
above, and projects greatly over the base of the cephalo-thorax; along the middle of the 
upper part there extends a broad, dark, red-brown band, having sinuous margins, which is 
bordered anteriorly with pale-yellow; the sides have a lighter shade of red-brown, and the 
colour of the under part is yellow, tinged with green, a broad, longitudinal, dark, red-brown 
band occupying the medial line; a small, pale, curved, prominent process is connected with 
the sexual organs; and the branchial opercula have a yellow tint. 
In colour the sexes closely resemble each other; but the male is rather smaller and 
darker than the female, and the relative length of its legs is different, the second pair being 
longer than the fourth. The cubital and radial joints of the palpi are short; the latter, which 
is the stronger, projects an acute apophysis from its extremity, on the under side, and has a 
protuberance on the outer side, with which several long bristles are connected; the digital 
joint is of an oblong oval form, convex and hairy externally, concave within, comprising the 
palpal organs; these organs are moderately developed, complicated in structure, having an 
obtuse, projecting process in contact with the protuberance on the outer side of the radial 
joint, and two fine spines at their extremity, one of which is curved into a circular form; 
their colour is dark, reddish-brown. The digital joints of the palpi have their convex sides 
directed towards each other. 
In summer and autumn this species may be found on rails and gates about Oakland. 
The plan of its snare is similar to that on which the snares of other Theridia are constructed. 
In June the female deposits about twenty-nine spherical eggs of a yellowish-white colour, not 
adherent among themselves, in a globular cocoon of white silk, of a fine but compact texture, 
measuring one eighth of an inch in diameter. Near the cocoon, which is sometimes attached 
to the under side of a leaf by fine lines of silk, she takes her station, and on the approach of 
danger endeavours to secure her treasure by seizing it with her falces, palpi, and feet. 
Theridion Carolinum. PI. XIV, fig. 123. 
Theridion Carolinum, Walck., Hist. Nat. des Insect. Apt., tom. ii, p. 315. 
_ — Blackw., Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist., second series, vol. viii, 
p. 444. 
— dorsiger, Hahn, Die Arachn., Band i, p. 82, tab. 20, fig. 61 (misnumbered 
60 in the plate). 
Linyphia bimaculata, Koch, Uebers. des Arachn. Syst., erstes Heft, p. 10. 
Length of the female, ^th of an inch; length of the cephalo-thorax, ^th, breadth, ^th; 
breadth of the abdomen, ^th; length of an anterior leg, ',th; length of a leg of the third 
pair, jth. 
The eyes are seated on a small eminence; the four intermediate ones form a square, the 
