26 
The Bipry ^/ANIMALS, 
A R A N E A. 
T H E body of the Aranea is fhort and of'a roundifh, oval, or elliptic figure * the 
eyes are eight in number, and are placed on the hinder part of the thorax * the 
legs are eight in number, and the creature has a power of fpinning. 
The fpecies of Aranea, or Spiders, are very numerous; but authors have made them 
yet more fo, by admitting among them Infeds of very different genera. Lifter has 
been very accurate in his defcriptions, but he has taken in fome of the Acari, &c. into 
the number : his odd, that fo ftriking a character, as the eight eyes of the Spider, fhould 
not exclude Infects that had but two. 
Aranea corpore longiufculo argenteo virefcente . 
The long and Jilvery-green-bodied Aranea. 
%l)t sutn 
This is one of the mofc fingular of the Spider clafs : it is moderately large 3 it’s 
body is longer and flenderer than that of any other fpecies, and is of a livery green co¬ 
lour, with an admixture of yellow, variegated with lines, ftrokes, and fpots of black 
on the back; and with a black line yellow at edges, running all along the belly. It’s 
legs are long and flender, and are generally protended horizontally. 
It is common in damp woods, where it fquats down, as it were, on the branches of 
trees, and throws four of it’s legs forward, and four backward, extending them ftraight 
along the bough. I have often met with it in Charlton wood near Woolwich. Lifter 
calls it, Araneus ex viridi inauratus alvo longiufcula prastenui. 
Aranea livida ahdomine ovato aquatica . 
The bluijh, oval-bodied\ water Aranea. 
Xlje great nmtec 
^pttser. 
This is a Spider of the larger kind : it’s body is oval, and, as it were, truncated a£ 
the tail: it is of a bluifh black, and has a tranfverfe line and two fpots toward the bot¬ 
tom, all hollowed in it. The legs are long, and the joints large : it is furnifhed at the 
head with a very terrible weapon, a hard black forceps, vaftly larger than any of the 
European fpiders have it, and wholly refembling that of the tarantula; it will lay hold 
of any thing very firmly with this; whether there be any thing poifonous in the 
wound it in Aids is not known. 
It is found in ftanding waters, but is not common ; it walks on the mud at the bot¬ 
tom of them : I have met with it in fome ponds in Effex near Thorndoo, and once in 
the Serpentine river in Hyde-park. 
Aranea abdomine ovato hirfuto, cruribus crajfiufculls* 5Tfj t 
The oval hairy-bodied Aranea , with thick legs. 
This is one of the large Spiders, but is not the very largeft known : it’s body is three 
quarters of an inch long, and of the thicknefs of one’s little finger. It is ufually of an 
olive brown, variegated with a dulkier colour; but in this it varies greatly: it is 
covered with a fhort and foft down, or hairinefs: the points of it’s forceps are very 
fine and fharp : as to the effeds of the poifon they convey into the wound they make 3 
there feems yet room for much explanation about it. 
This fpecies is a native of Apulia: the generality of writers call it the Tarantula;, 
and Araneus tarantula didus. ■* 
Aranea corpore oblongo nigro aquatica . 
The oblong-bodied black water Spider . » 
This is a large Spider : the body is of an elliptic figure, and black; a white line runs 
along each fide, from the thorax to the tail, where the two meet : the anus is 
bifurcated : the legs are long, and of a greyifti brown. 
It is frequent about waters, but it only fkims along upon the Surface of them. 
Aranea 
