338 
EPBIRIDiE. 
brown hue, with the exception of the digital joint, which has a red-brown tint; the radial is 
rather larger than the cubital joint, and is provided with some long hairs ; the digital joint is 
short, oval, convex and hairy externally, concave within, comprising the palpal organs, which 
are moderately developed, complicated in structure, with a curved, black spine at their 
extremity, directed upwards, a projecting process near their base, towards the inner side, and 
are of a dark red-brown colour. The abdomen is oviform, sparingly clothed with hairs, 
somewhat depressed, and projects over the base of the cephalo-thorax; on the upper part 
there is a large, oval figure of a brownish-gray colour, having black, sinuous margins, and 
comprising a row of small, black, slightly indented spots on each side of the medial line; its 
anterior part, and a series of curved, transverse lines, diminishing in length as they approach 
the spinners, have a silver-gray hue, and an oval, brown spot occurs on each side of its 
anterior extremity; a narrow, silver-gray band follows the undulations of the black margins, 
and the sides and under part are of a brownish colour tinged with yellow, both being marked 
with minute, blackish spots; a broad, black band extends along the middle of the under part, 
on each side of which there is a yellow stripe; and the colour of the branchial opercula is 
yellow. 
The sexes resemble each other in the design formed by the distribution of their colours, 
but the female is larger than the male, measuring one fourth of an inch in length. Its sexual 
organs are prominent, of a brownish-black hue, and have a broad septum in the middle. 
In the summer of 1843, Miss Gertrude Buller Elphinstone captured an adult male 
Epeira similis at East Lodge, Enfield, Middlesex, which she obligingly forwarded to Oakland; 
and in the autumn of the same year Miss Margaret B. Lewis, of Cichle, Anglesey, took an 
immature male at Ellesmere, in Shropshire, which, as the digital joints of its palpi were very 
tumid, had to undergo its final change of integument before it arrived at maturity. Subse¬ 
quently, specimens of adult males and females of this species have been obtained from 
Hampshire, Northamptonshire and Yorkshire. 
Epeira similis and Epeira calophylla are very closely allied ; but the males may be 
distinguished from each other without difficulty by differences in the structure of their palpi 
and palpal organs. 
Epeira calophylla, PI. XXV, fig. 245. 
Epeira calophylla, Walck., Hist. Nat. des Insect. Apt., tom. ii, p. 70. 
— — Latr., Gen. Crust, et Insect., tom. i, p. 108. 
— — Sund., Vet. Acad. Handl., 1832, p. 252. 
— — Blackw., Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist., second series, vol. x, 
p. 183. 
Zilla — Koch, Die Arachn., Band vi, p. 148, tab. 216, figs. 538, 539. 
Eucharia atrica, Koch, Die Arachn., Band xii, p. 103, tab. 419, figs. 1030, 1031. 
Titulus 10, Lister, Hist. Animal. Angl. de Aran., p. 47, tab. 1, fig. 10. 
Length of the female, ^ths of an inch ; length of the cephalo-thorax, ^th, breadth, T ' 0 th ; 
