LINYPHIA. 
215 
ticular cocoons of white silk of a loose texture, which are attached to withered leaves, or 
other objects situated near the snare ; the larger of these cocoons measures half an inch in 
diameter, and contains about 140 spherical eggs of a pale-yellow colour, not agglutinated 
together. 
Inhabits Scotland and Ireland. 
Linyphia pratensis. PI. XY, fig. 141. 
Linyphia pratensis, Wider, Museum Senckenb., Band i, p. 258, taf. 17, fig. 8. 
— ■— Walck., Hist. Nat. des Insect. Apt., tom. ii, p. 250. 
— Koch, Die Arachn., Band xii, p. 121, tab. 423, fig. 1043. 
— — Blackw., Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist., second series, vol. viii, 
p. 449. 
— sylvatica, Blackw., Linn. Trans., vol. xviii, p. 659. 
Length of the female, ith of an inch; length of the cephalo-thorax, ^th, breadth, T ‘ B th ; 
breadth of the abdomen, Ath; length of an anterior leg, fths; length of a leg of the third 
pair, ~th. 
The legs are long, slender, provided with hairs and fine, erect spines, and are of a 
yellowish-brown colour, occasionally tinged with green; each tarsus is terminated by three 
claws; the two superior ones are curved and pectinated, and the inferior one is inflected near 
its base. The palpi resemble the legs in colour, and have a slightly curved claw at their 
extremity. The cephalo-thorax is oval, convex, glossy, with slight furrows on the sides con¬ 
verging towards a large indentation in the medial line; the falces are powerful, conical, convex 
in front, armed with teeth on the inner surface, and slightly inclined towards the sternum, 
which is heart-shaped; the maxillae are strong and somewhat quadrate, having the exterior 
angle, at the extremity, curvilinear; and the lip is semicircular and prominent at the apex. 
These parts are of a very dark-brown colour, the cephalo-thorax being the palest. The four 
intermediate eyes describe a trapezoid whose anterior side is the shortest, and those of each 
lateral pair are seated on a small tubercle, and are contiguous, or nearly so; the posterior 
eyes of the trapezoid are the largest of the eight. The abdomen is thinly clothed with hairs, 
glossy, very convex above, and projects over the base of the cephalo-thorax; a broad, longi¬ 
tudinal, dentated, dark-brown band, bordered with yellowish-white, occupies the middle of 
the upper part; the sides have a dark-brown hue, a large, irregular, yellowish-white band 
extending along each, and uniting above the spinners; and the colour of the under part and 
the branchial opercula is dark-brown, the latter having a tinge of red; the sexual organs 
have two large, external orifices, and a small, oval process connected with their inferior 
margin. 
The male bears little resemblance to the female. Its figure is much slighter, and its 
falces, which are very powerful, have a small, obtuse prominence at the base, numerous 
minute tubercles in front and on the outer side, and are armed with a large tooth and several 
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