EPEIRA. 
329 
oreans are moderately developed, with a subcylindrical, transversely striated, taper, mem¬ 
branous process, of a yellow-brown hue, connected with their anterior margin, and curved 
backwards ; their colour is brown, slightly tinged with red, and that of the branchial opercula 
is red-brown. 
The sexes are similar in the design formed by the distribution of their colours, but the 
male is smaller, much slenderer, and has longer legs than the female. Its palpi are short, 
and of a reddish-yellow colour, with the exception of the digital joint, which has a brown 
hue; the cubital joint has at its extremity, in front, two long, curved bristles, directed for¬ 
wards ; the radial is larger than the cubital joint, and projects a strong process from its outer 
side, which is gibbous near the base, and amply provided with long hairs ; the digital joint is 
somewhat oval, having a curved process at its base, directed outwards; it is convex and hairy 
externally, concave within, comprising the palpal organs, which are highly developed and 
complicated in structure; at their base there is a long, rather strong, and prominent bifid 
process, with a large, obtuse protuberance near its base, on the inner side; both divisions of 
the bifid process are slightly curved towards the inner side, and the superior one, which is 
much the stronger, and rounded at the end, has a small and somewhat pointed projection 
near its extremity, on the inner side; lower down there is a prominent, depressed, brownish- 
yellow process, which is enlarged and rounded at its extremity, and near whose summit, on 
the inner side, the ends of two strong processes terminate ; the larger process curves round 
the extremity of the organs, and the other is situated on their inner side; the colour of the 
palpal organs is reddish-yellow with dark, reddish-brown intermixed. The convex sides 
of the digital joints are directed towards each other. 
The habits of Epeira sericata are similar to those of Epeira apoclisa , and both species 
may frequently be found in the same localities. 
Epeira patagiata. PI. XXIV, fig. 239- 
Epeira patagiata, Koch, Die Arachn., Band xi, p. 115, tab. 386, figs. 916 919. 
—— dumetorum, Hahn, Ibid., Band ii, p. 31, tab. 48, fig. 117. 
_ _ Koch, Uebers des Arachn. Syst., erstes Heft, p. 2. 
Length of the female, §ths of an inch; length of the cephalo-thorax, 1th, breadth, 1th ; 
breadth of the abdomen, |jths; length of an anterior leg, §rds; length of a leg of the third 
pair, |ths. 
The four intermediate eyes are seated on a prominence, and nearly form a square, the 
two anterior ones, which are rather wider apart than the posterior ones, being the largest of 
the eight; the eyes of each lateral pair are placed obliquely on a small tubercle, but are not 
contiguous. The cephalo-thorax is compressed before, broad in front, rounded on the sides, 
moderately convex, and has a large indentation in the medial line; it is of a red-brown 
colour, and is clothed with hoary hairs, which are densest in the cephalic region and on the 
lateral margins. The falces are powerful, conical, vertical, and armed with teeth on the 
