352 
EPEIRHLE. 
interrupted by a brown patch near the spinners which sometimes comprises a yellowish spot; 
this band has yellow lateral borders, and there are two spots of the same hue on each side of 
the spinners ; the colour of the branchial opercula is yellowish-white. This species varies 
greatly in colour, some individuals being much darker and less distinctly marked than 
others. 
The design formed by the colours of the sexes is similar, but the male is smaller than 
the female. The cubital and radial joints of its palpi are short, and the latter, which is the 
stronger, has a minute apophysis at its extremity, in front; the digital joint consists of three 
parts ; one, which projects boldly in front, is curved, glossy, transversely striated above, and 
has a thin membrane connected with it; another, united to the base of the curved part on 
the outer side, is slender and hairy ; and the third, which is much the largest, is somewhat 
oval, contracted at the base, convex and hairy externally, and concave within; all are 
connected with the palpal organs, which are moderately developed, not very complicated in 
structure, and of a red-brown colour. The convex sides of the oval parts of the digital 
joints are directed towards each other. 
Obscure damp situations are generally resorted to by this spider, which is plentiful in 
many parts of England and Wales, and also occurs in Scotland and Ireland. It spins an 
extensive net with an open circular space at the centre, which it usually occupies when 
watching for its prey; from this station it drops quickly to the ground on being disturbed, 
regaining it when the danger is past by means of a line drawn from the spinners in its 
descent, and previously attached to the circumvolution of the unadhesive line bounding 
the central aperture. Like Tetraynatha externa, it has the habit of extending the first and 
second pairs of legs in a line with the body. 
Immature individuals of the species Epeira antriada, Epeira inclinata, Epeira cucurbitina 
and Epeira diadema, and adults of the species Linyphia viinuta and Linyphia tenuis , are fre¬ 
quently infested by the larva of the Polysphincta carbonaria of Gravenhorst, which feeds upon 
their fluids and ultimately occasions their death. Since the publication of the account of 
this parasite in the ‘Annals and Magazine of Natural History,’ vol. xi, p. 1, it has been 
observed that the colour of the larva, after its final change of integument, becomes dark- 
brown, streaked and spotted with white, particularly on the sides, and that a series of dorsal 
prolegs is developed on the segments of its body comprised between the third and tenth, both 
inclusive. These dorsal prolegs are short, and, with the exception of that on the tenth 
segment, are more or less bifid at the summit; on their extremities are disposed numerous 
fine curved processes or claws, with which the larva, when about to fabricate its cocoon, 
attaches itself to the lines spun by its victim. Only two instances are noticed by Messrs. 
Kirby and Spence in their ‘ Introduction to Entomology,’ sixth edition, vol. ii, pp. 227, 228, 
of the larvae of insects having prolegs situated on their backs. 
