THERIDION. 
203 
is customary with the spiders of this genus ; each tarsus is terminated by three claws ; the two 
superior ones are curved and pectinated, and the inferior one is inflected near its insertion. 
Ihe male is smaller and darker coloured than the female; its legs, which are slender, 
are longer than hers, and its abdomen is without lateral protuberances on the upper part. 
The humeral joint of its palpi is long; the cubital and radial joints are short, the latter being 
the stionger; and the digital joint, which has an oblong-oval form and red-brown hue, is 
convex and hairy externally, concave within, comprising the palpal organs; these organs are 
highly developed, vascular, complicated in structure, with a black spine curved from the 
outer to the inner side, round their base, several curved, pointed, black processes at their 
extremity, extending a little beyond the end. of the joint, and are of a pale, brownish-red 
colour. 
A specimen of this remarkable species was detected in a cleft of a rail at Oakland, in 
April, 1835. It was a female, and, like Tetragnatha extensa , frequently extended the first and 
second pairs of legs forwards, and the fourth pair backwards, in a line with the body. 
In the summer of 1860, the Rev. O. P. Cambridge took both sexes of Theridion angulatum, 
in a state of maturity, at Hursley, near Winchester. The female was much paler, as may be 
seen by inspecting the figure, than the one described above, which was immature, but there 
is no reason for doubting their specific identity. This spider has various striking charac¬ 
teristics in common with the Episinus truncatus of Walckenaer (‘Hist.. Nat. des Insect. Apt.,’ 
tom. ii, p. 375, pi. 21, fig. 1 d; and tom. iv, p. 515), but there does not appear to be any 
necessity for removing it from the genus Theridion. 
1 HEKIDION VARIEGATUM. PI. XIV, fig. 134. 
Theridion variegatum, Walck., Hist. Nat. des Insect. Apt., tom. ii, p. 332. 
—• — Blackw., Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist., second series, vol. viii, 
p. 446. 
— thoracicum, Wider, Museum Senckenb., Band i, p. 218, taf. 14, fig. 11. 
— callens, Blackw., Linn. Trans., vol. xviii, p. 627. 
Ero liariegata, Koch, Uebers. des Arachn. Si'st., erstes Heft, p. 8. 
Length of the female, jtli of an inch; length of the cephalo-thorax, T ' B th, breadth, _/ 5 th; 
breadth of the abdomen, ^th; length of an anterior leg, Rh; length of a leg of the third 
pair, jth. 
Ihe cephalo-thorax is oval, glossy, and very convex, but it slopes abruptly in the 
posterior region, where there is an indentation in the medial line; a row of fine, curved 
bristles, which are directed forwards, extends along the middle, and its colour is pale, 
yellowish-brown, the lateral margins, a triangular spot in the centre, which projects a line 
from the middle of its base to the eyes, and has a narrow triangle at its apex, whose base 
terminates at the medial indentation, together with a small triangular spot immediately behind 
each lateral pair of eyes, being black. The eyes are seated on black spots; the four inter¬ 
mediate ones form a square, the two anterior ones being placed on a protuberance, and the 
