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Family —EPBIRID/E. 
In size, in structure, in colour, and in the consistency of their integument, the Epeirida 
present several very remarkable points of contrast. They have the falces articulated verti¬ 
cally or on an inclined plane, and their abdomen is provided with three pairs of spinners 
and two branchial opercula. Marked differences are apparent in the dimensions of the legs 
of various species, and the tarsi are terminated by three or more claws, the additional ones, 
when present, being minute. Some of the Epeiridce have a strong moveable spine, inserted 
near the termination of the tarsus of each posterior leg, on the under side, which is slightly 
curved upwards at its extremity. These spines have been named sustentacula , from the im¬ 
portant purpose they subserve. By the contraction of their flexor muscles they are drawn 
towards the foot, and are thus brought in direct opposition to the claws, by which means the 
animals are enabled to hold with a firm grasp such lines as they have occasion to draw from 
the spinners with the feet of the hind-legs, and such also as they design to attach them¬ 
selves to. 
The spiders of this extensive family have a very wide geographical range, inhabiting 
countries differing greatly in temperature. Trees, bushes, coarse herbage, insterstices in rocks 
and walls, and the inside of caves and buildings, are the situations in which they construct 
their symmetrical snares; they consist of an elastic spiral line thickly studded with minute 
globules of liquid gum, whose circumvolutions, falling wi thin the same plane, are crossed by 
radii converging towards a common centre, which is immediately surrounded by several cir¬ 
cumvolutions of a short spiral line devoid of viscid globules, forming a station from which the 
toils may be superintended by their owner without the inconvenience of being entangled 
in them. 
Genus —EPEIRA, Walck. 
Eyes disposed on the anterior part of the cephalo-thorax in two transverse rows, the 
four intermediate ones constituting a small square, or nearly so. 
Maxillae short, powerful, narrow at the base and rounded at the extremity. 
Lip semicircular, or somewhat oval. 
Leys long, varying in their relative length in different species. 
