834 
EPEIRID.E. 
with hoary hairs, and has a large indentation in the medial line; the falces are short, strong, 
conical, vertical, convex in front, and armed with teeth on the inner surface; the maxillse are 
powerful and rounded at the extremity; the lip is nearly semicircular, but somewhat pointed ; 
and the sternum is heart-shaped, sparingly supplied with hoary hairs, and has on the sides 
eminences opposite to the legs. These parts are of a dark-brown colour, approaching to 
black, with the exception of the extremities of the maxillse and lip, which have a yellowish- 
brown tint. The legs are robust, provided with hairs and erect spines, and have a dark- 
brown hue approaching to black, with pale, reddish-brown or yellowish-brown annuli; each 
tarsus is terminated by three claws of the usual structure, below which there are several 
smaller ones. The palpi resemble the legs in colour, and have a curved, pectinated claw at 
their extremity. The four intermediate eyes are seated on an eminence, 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 constituting each lateral pair are placed obliquely on a tubercle, 
but are not contiguous. 
The sexes are similar in colour, but the male is the smaller. The cubital and radial 
joints of its palpi are short; the former has one or two long bristles at its extremity, in front, 
and the latter, which is the stronger, is prominent on the under side; the digital joint is 
somewhat oval, with a process at the base, curved outwards and notched at the extremity, 
and a lobe on the lower side; it is convex and hairy externally, concave within, comprising 
the palpal organs, which are highly developed, prominent, complicated in structure, with a 
bold process, whose extremities are pointed, contiguous to the lateral lobe, and are of a dark, 
reddish-brown colour. The convex sides of the digital joints are directed towards each 
other. 
Epeira umbratica is much more abundant in various parts of England and Wales than it 
is generally supposed to be, its apparent scarcity being attributable to its nocturnal habits and 
the care with which it conceals itself during the day. 
In June the female constructs, under the exfoliating bark of trees and in crevices in old 
rails a subglobose cocoon of white silk, of a slightish texture, measuring §ths, of an inch in 
diameter, in which she deposits about 160 spherical eggs of a yellowish-brown colour, agglu¬ 
tinated together in a lenticular mass. On the exterior surface of the cocoon small pieces of 
bark, wood, and other extraneous materials, are distributed, which serve to assimilate it to 
surrounding objects. 
This spider spins a large net, having wide intervals between the radii and the circum¬ 
volutions of the elastic spiral line, and preys chiefly on moths. 
Epeira agalena. PI. XXIV, fig. 242. 
Epeira agalena , Walck., Hist. Nat. des Insect. Apt., tom. ii, p. 36. 
— — Blackw., Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist., second series, vol. xiv, 
p. 32. 
— Sturmii, Hahn, Die Arachn., Band i, p. 12, tab. 3, fig. 8. 
Atea agalena , Koch, Die Arachn., Band xi, p. 137, tab. 391, figs. 936—938 (the 
specific name hyalina is incorrectly connected with the numbers 
936, 937, in the plate, but this error is rectified in the text). 
