EPEIRA. 
339 
breadth of the abdomen, |th; length of an anterior leg, J; length of a leg of the third 
pair, 1th. 
The legs are provided with hairs and black spines, and are of a yellowish-brown colour, 
with black annuli; each tarsus is terminated by three claws of the usual structure, and 
below them there are several smaller ones. The palpi resemble the legs in colour, and have 
a curved, pectinated claw at their extremity. The cephalo-thorax is convex, glossy, com¬ 
pressed before, rounded on the sides, and has a large indentation in the medial line; it is of 
a yellowish-brown hue, with black lateral margins, and a blackish band, which is broadest at 
its anterior extremity, extending along the middle. The four intermediate eyes form a square, 
the two anterior ones, which are seated on a small protuberance, being the largest of the 
eight; the eyes of each lateral pair are placed obliquely on a tubercle, but, though near 
together, are not in contact. The falces are powerful, conical, vertical, convex in front, near 
the base, armed with teeth on the inner surface, and of a reddish-brown hue, the frontal 
convexity being the darkest. The maxillae are short, strong, and very broad at the extremity, 
which is rounded; and the lip is semicircular, but somewhat pointed. These organs are of a 
reddish-brown colour, with yellowish-brown extremities, the base of the lip being much the 
darkest. The sternum is heart-shaped, and has small eminences on the sides, opposite to the 
legs; it has a black tint, with a yellowish-brown band in the middle, which diminishes in 
breadth to its posterior extremity. The abdomen is oviform, thinly clothed with hairs, 
somewhat depressed, and projects greatly over the base of the cephalo-thorax; on the upper 
part there is a large, oval figure of a gray colour, having black, sinuous margins, and 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 black 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 
sides of immature individuals have frequently a bright bay tint; and the young on quitting 
the cocoon have the upper part of the abdomen of a brownish-black hue, with a yellow mark, 
which is bifid at its posterior extremity, in the medial line of the anterior part. 
The male is much smaller and less distinctly marked than the female. Its palpi are 
long, provided with numerous long hairs, and of a red-brown hue, with a black annulus at 
the base of the cubital and radial joints; the cubital joint, which is curved downwards, 
increases in bulk to its extremity, and the radial joint is long, and has a minute, bifid 
apophysis at its extremity, on the outer side ; the digital joint is short, oval, convex and 
hairy externally, concave w'ithin, comprising the palpal organs, which are neither highly 
developed nor very complicated in structure; they have a curved, black spine at their 
extremity, directed upwards, a prominent, bifid process at their base, on the inner side, and 
are of a reddish-brown colour. 
This common spider, which is widely distributed in Great Britain and Ireland, frequents 
shrubs, buildings, and crevices in rocks and walls. It pairs in autumn, and the female con¬ 
structs a subglobose cocoon of soft, pale-brown silk of a loose texture, measuring half an inch 
