British spiders : an introduction to the study of the Araneidae of Great Britain and Ireland

Introduction To The Study

OF THE

ARANE IBM

E. F. STAVELEY.

LONDON:

J. E. TAYLOR AND CO., PRINTERS,

LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS.

Preface

The present little work lays no claim to originality, but, being of a popular character, it seemed unnecessary to fill its margins with references to the sources from which various facts and statements have been drawn. The writer therefore here begs to acknowledge Mr. Blackwall as the chief authority, his work on British Spiders having been most freely used. The writings of MM. Latreille, Simon, and several others, have also have been made use of without acknowledgment in the body of the work.

Chapter I. Introductory Remarks

PAGE

Etymology. — Prejudices against Spiders. — Ferocity of. — Venom of. — Ireland formerly supposed to be free from. — Taming of. — Love of music in. — Spiders and their Webs used medicinally. — Silk of. — Spiders used in Divination. — Actions of Spiders an indication of Weather. — Gossamer . 1

Chapter II. Structure Of The Spider

External Anatomy. — Breathing Apparatus. — Circulator}^ System. — Organs of Digestion. — Nervous System. — Muscles. — Senses. — Anatomical Differences between Spi¬ ders and other Animals of the Order Arachnida. — Moult¬ ing of Spiders. — Longevity. — Spiders’ Eggs . 11

Chapter III. Families And Genera Of Eritish Spiders

Division of Tribes and Families. — Characters of Families. — Derivation of Generic Names

X

CONTENTS

CHAPTER IY.

ON COLLECTING SPIDERS.

PAGE

Necessity for observation of Habits. — Apparatus. — Mode of Preserving Spiders . 29

TRIBE I. OCTONOCULINA . 34

I. FAM. MYGALID2E . 34

ATYPUS . 34

II. FAM. LYCOSIDiE . 35

1. LYCOSA . 35

2. DOLOMEDES . 48

3 HECAERGE . 52

4. SPHASUS . 53

III. FAM. SALTICID.E . 54

1. ERESUS . 54

2. SALTICUS . 55

IV. FAM. THOMISIDiE . 67

1. THOMISUS . 67

2. PHILODROMUS . 82

3. SPARASSUS . 88

V. FAM. DRASSIDjE . 90

1. DRASSUS . 90

2. CLUBIONA . 100

3. ARGYRONETA . 110

VI. FAM. CINIFLONID2E . 113

1. CINIFLO . 113

2. ERGA.TIS . 119

3. VELEDA . 122

VII. FAM. AGELENIDjE . 123

1. AGELENA . 123

2. TEGENARIA . 130

3. CjELotes . 135

4. TEXTRIX . 136

CONTENTS.

XI

PAGK

VIII. FAM. THERlDIIDiE . 138

1. THERIDION . 138

2. PHOLCUS . 161

IX. FAM. LINYPHIID-E . 163

1. LINYPHIA . 163

4. PACHYGNATHA . 219

X. FAM. EPEIRIDAi . 221

1. EPEIRA . 221

2. TETRAGNATHA . 256

TRIBE II. SENOCULTNA . 259

I. FAM. DYSDERID.E . 259

1. DYSDERA . 259

2. SEGESTRIA . 262

3. SCHCENOBATES . 264

4. oonops . 265

II. FAM. SCYTODIDJE . , . 267

1. SCYTODES . 267

TABULAR ARRANGEMENT OF NESTS, COCOONS, AND EGGS . 269

EXPLANATION OF TERMS USED . 276

Index To Families, Genera, And Species . 277

LIST OF PLATES.

Note. — - £ signifies male ; ^ , female.

Plates I. and II.

Figures illustrating tlie num¬ ber and position of tlie eyes in different genera.

Plate III.

MYGALID AS.

1. Atypus Sulzeri, $ .

LYCOSIDAS.

2. Lycosa picta, <$ .

3. Lycosa saccata, $ .

4. Lycosa piratica, $ .

5. Lolomedes mirabilis, $ . (i. Hecaerge spinimana, $ . 7. Sphasus lineatus, <$ .

Plate IV.

SALTICIDA3.

I . Salticus scenicus, <$ .

2. Salticns cnpreus, $ .

THOMISIDAS.

3. Thomisus cristatus, J' .

4. Thomisus audax, $ .

5. Thomisus citreus, $ .

5 a. Thomisus citreus, £ .

6. Thomisus abbreviatus, 9 .

Plate V.

TIIOMISIDiE.

1. Philodromus dispar, .

1 a. Philodromus dispar, .

2. Philodromus elegans, $ .

3. Philodromus cespiticolis,

4. Philodromus oblongus, $ .

5. Sparassus smaragdulus, £ • 5 a. Sparassus smaragdulus,

XIV

LIST OF PLATES.

Plate VI.

DUASSIDiE.

1. Drassus cuprous, $ .

2. Drassus nitens, $ .

3. Clubiona holosericea, $ .

4. Clubiona amarantha, $ .

5. Clubiona accentuata, $ .

6. Clubiona erratica, $ .

7. Avgyroneta aquatica, $ .

Plate VII.

CINIFLONID^E.

1. Ciniflo atrox, 2 .

2. Ciniflo similis, $ .

3. Ciniflo ferox, 2 .

4. Ergatis benigna, 2 .

5. Ergatis pallens, $ .

6. Ergatis latens, 2 .

7. Veleda lineata, $ .

Plate VIII.

AGELENID/E.

1. Agelena labyrinthica, $ .

2. Agelena elegans, <$ .

3. Agelena brunnea, <$ .

4. Agelena Hyndmanii, 2 .

5. Tegenaria domesticn, life

size , 2 .

6. Cselotes saxatilis, 2 .

7. Textrix lycosina, f .

Plate IX.

THERIDIID^L

1. Theridion lineatum, 2 .

la. Theridion lineatum, 2 ,

underside.

lb. Theridion lineatum, $,

variety.

2. Theridion quadripuncta-

tum, 2 .

3. Theridion nervosum, 2 .

4. Theridion denticulatum,

4 a. Theridion denticulatum,

Plate X.

TIIERIDIID/E.

1. Theridion pictum, 2 .

2. Theridion varians, 2 .

3. Theridion inornatum, $ .

4. Theridion pallens, $ .

5. Theridion signatum, $ .

6. Theridion angulatum, $ .

7. Pholcus phalangioides, 2 .

Plate XI.

LINYPHIIDiE.

1. Linyphia montana, $ . la. Linyphia montana, f .

2. Linyphia triangularis, $ .

3. Linyphia tenuis, $ .

4. Linyphia minuta, <$ .

5. Linyphia pratensis, 2 •

5 a. Linyphia pratensis, f .

Plate XII.

LINYPIIIIDiE.

1. Neriene bicolor,

LIST OF PLATES.

XV

2. Neriene cornigera, $ .

3. Neriene bituberculata, £ .

4. Neriene rubella, <$ .

5. Neriene pilosa, $ .

6. Neriene trilineata, $ .

7. Neriene errans, J" .

Plate XIII.

LINYPIIIIDiE.

1. Walckenaera acuminata,

2. Walckenaera pratensis, .

3. Walckenaera ludicra, $ .

4. Walckenaera antica, $ .

4 a. Walckenaera antica, $ .

5. Pachygnatha Degeeri, $ .

5 a. PachygnathaDegeeri, $ .

Plate XI Y.

EPEIRIDtE.

1. Epeira quadrata, ? .

2. Epe’ira apoclisa, $ .

3. Epeira sericata, $ .

4. Epeira scalaris, $ .

5. Epeira umbratica, $ .

6. Epeira diadema, 2 .

7. Epeira angulata, $ .

Plate XY.

EPElRIDiE.

1. Epeira callophylla, $ .

2. Epeira acalyplia, $ .

3. Epeira bella, $ .

3 a. Epeira bella, $ .

4. Epeira inclinata, $ .

5. Epeira conica, $ .

6. Tetragnatba extensa, 9 •

Plate XYI.

DYSDERIDiE.

1. Dysdera erythrina, $ .

2. Dysdera rubicunda, $ .

3. Dysdera Ilombergii, $ .

4. Segestria perfida, $ .

5. Segestria senoculata, £ .

6. Oonops pulcher, $ .

7. Scytodes tlioracica, ? .

ERRATA.

Page 6, line 24, for has said read has been said.

„ 53,

17, for III. read IV.

„ 70,

11, dele within a rolled-up leaf.

„ 85,

7, for caespiticolis read cespiticolis.

„ 91,

28, for said in this read and near this.

„ 127,

3 3

15, for two-toothed read two. Toothed.

„ 138,

7, for Plate I. read Plate II.

„ 141,

2 from bottom, for 3 read 2.

„ 144,

18, for 4 read 3.

„ 146,

21 and 22, for 5 read 4.

„ 197, paging, for 179 read 197.

BRITISH SPIDERS.

(ABANEIDM)

Chapter I. Introductory Remarks

The Spider has been recognized and distinguished in all ages and in almost all countries by one function, which has been proved to be so perfect a characteristic that the scientific division of the present day is founded upon it. Thus, whilst other groups have been admitted into the large class ( Arachnida *) which derives its name from the spider, the spider itself has been separated from them under the name of Arachnida filosa, or the thread¬ making Arachnida.

We may go further back than to the ancient fable of Arachne to find the idea of spinning connected with the name of this animal. The Hebrew name is supposed to be compounded of two words, to weave and agile, as if agile weaver. In the Arabic the same meaning is found, and the Greek arachne is derived from the Phenicio- Shemitic arag, to weave ; whilst the Latin aranea ,

* A pax^n {arachne), a spider; eiSos ( eidos ), resemblance.

o

BRITISH SPIDERS.

French araignee, Italian aragne, Spanish arana, bear evident marks of a more or less direct derivation from the Greek word.

Our own word spider, although a few fanciful deriva¬ tions have been assigned to it,* appears to be the spinder or spinner, from the Anglo-Saxon spinan, to spin. The German name is Spinne ( spinnen being to spin), and the Swedish is Spindel.

By some of our old writers the spider is called the Spinner and Spither ; perhaps the earliest form is that found in the early English Psalter (printed by the Sur¬ tees Society), where (Ps. Ixxxix.) it is called Spinnandweb.

An exception to this rule is, however, to be found in the Anglo-Saxon name Atter-coppa, i. e. Poison-head; whilst the Dutch name, Kop (whence our cobweb) ap¬ pears to be given to the animal with reference to its round form, kop or cob signifying the head or anything round. Skinner associates the idea of spinning with even this last name, saying that it is “ perhaps from the Anglo-Saxon coppe, apex, . . . because they build and weave at the tops of buildings.” The former deri¬ vation appears, however, to be the most probable.

But whilst the possession of the art of spinning seems to have been considered the chief characteristic of spiders, scarcely less prominent have been certain moral attributes, poets and philosophers alike having almost universally cited them as the representatives of

* Junius derives it from the Greek to extend (a word which

is, by the way, invented by the grammarians as a root for < Tmdrjs , spidees , far-stretched), — the spider extending his web. Johnson sug¬ gests Spy-dor, the insect that watches the dor. — from speiden Dutch, speyden Danish, to spy, lie upon the catch ; dor, dora , Saxon, beetle or humble-bee.

1 N TROD U CTO UY REMARKS.

cruelty and treachery. There may perhaps, however, be some natural connection between treachery and the art of spinning, as Chaucer tells us that

“ Deceite, weping, spinning, Gocl hath yeven To woman kindly, while that they may liven.”

That spiders are ferocious in their habits is undeniable, the males fighting with great fury, and the females, usually larger and stronger than the males, frequently devouring their partners ; but it seems probable that the feeling of disgust commonly excited by their general ap¬ pearance has had much to do in giving them so ill a name, as, amongst some insects, a more wanton kind of cruelty appears to prevail, namely, the desire of indicting death without the excitement of rage or of the want of food • whilst, as Kirby and Spence remark, the Mantis ( Mantis religiosa), an insect yielding to none in fero¬ city, “ has obtained a reputation for gentleness and even for sanctity.” A reputation better earned, if we may be¬ lieve an ancient tradition, by those spiders at least who, when St. Felix of Nola was pursued by pagans, cur¬ tained with their webs the hole through which he had found entrance to some ruinous place of refuge, and concealed him for six months.

The venomous nature of spiders has been much in¬ sisted on, probably from the same feeling of dislike, as, although the spider undoubtedly secretes a poison which disables and kills his victims, or, to speak more poeti¬ cally, if rather less accurately, although —

“ Nature, that gaue the bee so feate a grace To finde hony of so wondrous fashion,

Hath taught the Spider out of the same place To fetch Poyson by straunge alteracion —

* There is a proverb to the same effect (see Ray’s ‘ English Proverbs’),

BRITISH SPIDERS.

there is no English species capable of inflicting on man a poisoned wound of any severity.

There are some foreign species of which the poison is very virulent, their bite being sometimes followed by death ; but we can hardly credit the assertion of Scaliger, quoted by Derham, that there were in his country “ spi¬ ders of that virulency, that if a man treads upon them, to crush them, their poyson will pass through the very soles of his shoes.” Scaliger was a native of Gascony.

Ireland seems (at least in former times) to have been a more fortunate country, spiders being included in the list of noxious animals excluded from that island, as we find by lines in a poem of John Philips, published in 1706:—

The unkindest cut of all is an idea expressed by Sir Thomas More, but not confined to himself, that “as for spiders it is evident that they are of the ra avro/Marcos ryevofieva* as Aristotle phrases it, and are generated of mere sluttery and putrefaction.” Like most other creatures popularly referred to the same origin, they act as a corrective, if it be true (as is affirmed) that they have been found actively employed in clearing bedsteads of unwelcome colonists.

Notwithstanding these prejudices, there are some often-quoted instances of persons having tamed and

which is quoted, or perhaps originated, by Bishop Latimer, wdio says — “ W here the bee gathereth honey, even there the spinner gathereth venome.” (Latimer’s Letters, in Foxe.) And the Spaniard has “ Cuando zuga la abeja miel torna, y cuando la araha ponzona.”

* Things produced spontaneously.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

made companions of these little animals. Kirby and Spence tell of a Frenchman who tamed and fed eight hundred spiders; the learned Magliabecchi, librarian to the Duke of Tuscany, showed more love for spiders than for any other living creatures ; and Pelisson, one of the first geniuses of an age not wanting in great men, found comfort during his confinement in the Bastille in the society of a spider, which he not only tamed, hut taught to come to its food at the sound of a musical instru¬ ment.

Some old lines in the c Anthologia Borealis et Austra¬ lis ’ record a similar instance of companionship : —

Of wife, of children, and of health bereft,

Would that the cleanlie housemaid’s foot had left Thee tarrying here, nor took thy life away ;

For thou, from out this seare old ceiling’s cleft Came down each mom to hecle my plaintive lay,

The love of music spoken of here has been shown in other instances. It has said that spiders have come down from the ceiling during concerts, returning at the cessation of the music. A musician in the habit of using a harmonium every evening at a certain hour, ob¬ served for a long time that a spider always made its ap¬ pearance upon the instrument when the playing was going on.

A curative property has been attributed to the spider, and to the web of certain species.

Eleazar Albin, the author of f A Natural History of Spiders and other curious Insects * (1736), gives as a

BRITISH SPIDERS.

reason for publishing his book, his hope that his researehes might “ be no less agreeable than useful to the public in the cure of intermitting fevers.” He cites a quaint and amusing prescription, by the use of which he asserts that he has cured many persons of stubborn and long-continued tertian, quartan, and quotidian fevers, where bark and other remedies had failed, “ particularly some of the servants of the Honourable Colonel Schutz, as also Dame Hughs, of Tottenham Court Road, of a tertian ague of three years’ continuance,” etc. The medicine prescribed consists of the web of the house-spider mixed with mithridate. To this he adds that he has cured several children of agues “ by hanging a large spider, confined alive in a box, about their neck, reach¬ ing to the pit of the stomach, without giving any in¬ ternal remedies.”

He also mentions the use of the web (continued to this day) as a styptic.

Dr. Watson, in his ‘Lectures on the Principles and Practise of Physic’ (vol. i. Lect. 42, “On Agues and Intermittent Fevers”), quotes some strong testimony to the success of the application of the first of these remedies, which he states to have been tried on a some¬ what large scale. He gives, on the authority of Dr. Craigie, the following facts : —

In 1760, some prisoners from the squadron of Thurot, who were landed in the Isle of Man, suffered from agues which resisted bark and other ordinary remedies. At the recommendation of an old French physician, Dr. Gillespie made trial of the web of the black spider in¬ habiting barns and cellars, and found it efficacious in more than sixty cases of different types. Fie afterwards tried the same remedy with success in Scotland.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

Dr. Gillespie recommended this use of the cobweb to Dr. Jackson, who, in 1801, made some very satisfactory trials of it in the hospital of the army depot in the West Indies, and found that it not only cured cases of ague which had been affected but slightly, or not at all, by the usual remedies, but also that, under certain con¬ ditions, it removed pain, delirium, griping, and other distressing symptoms in cases of continued fever.

After enumerating other substances used in the treat¬ ment of ague, Dr. Watson passes on to the mention of cures effected by agents operating through strong men¬ tal emotion on the nervous system, such as (amongst others) u swallowing a spider gently bruised and wrapped up in a raisin, or spread upon bread and butter ; keep¬ ing a spider suspended from the patient’s neck in a nut¬ shell, till it dies •” the disgust and horror occasioned bv which seem occasionally to have wrought cures, as have also sudden joy, terror, and, as in the case of charms, implicit faith ; and whilst a less acute mind might have at once refused all credence to such means of cure as improbable or ridiculous, he, receiving the evidence, draws from it a conclusion that this disease may be es¬ sentially a disease of the nervous system. Thus, even through the antipathy of which we have spoken above, this little animal has been rendered beneficial to man.

Several attempts have been made to use in manufac¬ ture the cocoon silk spun by the spider. More than a century and a half ago, a M. Bon, of Languedoc, made some silk stockings and mittens of spider silk. The silk was of a beautiful grey colour, and was said to be nearly equal in quality and strength to that of the silkworm. M. Bon published a dissertation on the discovery, and the Boyal Academy of Paris employed M. Reaumur to

BRITISH SPIDERS.

inquire into the subject. In their memoirs for the year 1710, his statement of the difficulties attendant on the use of this substance as an article of manufacture ap¬ peared.

The great natural ferocity of the spiders formed one objection, rendering it impossible to keep them together. Some thousands were placed in cells containing from fifty to two hundred each, and were soon reduced to one or two in each cell, the larger killing and eating the smaller. Besides this, he reported the spider’s silk to lie inferior in strength and lustre to that of the silk¬ worm. The thread of the cocoon he found to have about eighteen times the strength of that of the web, whilst one thread from the silkworm’s cocoon was equal to about five threads from the spider’s. The lustre of the manufacture was necessarily less when five fine lines with shadowy interstices were required to take the place of a single thread ; and this quality was further dimi¬ nished by the necessity of carding the spider’s silk, which could not be wound like that of the silkworm, and which by this process was torn and rendered uneven.

He also found by calculation that of the spiders which yielded the most silk, 27,648 individuals were required to produce one pound, and the cocoon silk (or that sur¬ rounding the eggs) only being available, these must all be females, whilst the same quantity of silk would be spun by 2304 silkworms.

Kirby and Spence quote a statement that in Paraguay the silk of a spider, which forms a round cocoon of about an inch in diameter, is spun by the inhabitants on account of the permanency of its yellow colour; and Mr, Blackwall mentions a Spaniard also as having ma¬ nufactured the silk of the spider.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

An old writer* informs us that “ Spynners ben tokens of divynation, and of knowing what wether shall fal.” “ But there is no liuing creature that foretelleth not somewhat, either by his motion or encountrie. Diuination serueth him that will obserue the same. It therefore appertainetli vnto him that hath addicted his minde thereunto ;”f — and to him therefore shall it be left to work out this part of the subject. As to the second fact, it is said that the instinct of the spider with regard to the approaching state of the weather is so sure, that its manner of weaving its web affords a useful pro¬ gnostic. A web spun when windy or rainy weather is approaching, has its radiating or foundation threads much shorter than those of a web spun before fine and calm weather. The repairing of an injured web tells of the approach of fair weather, the spider being too provi¬ dent to expend his silk to no purpose. It is also said that if the spider is seen working at alterations in the wTeb between the hours of six and seven on a summer evening, the night will be clear and calm.

Much attention has been drawn to the fine floating webs which sometimes seem to cover the earth, and al¬ most to fill the air on still summer and autumn days, and whilst their history belongs rather to that part of the work which treats of the habits of spiders than to this place, it may not be unfit to notice here some of the strange opinions which have been entertained concerning the Gossamer.

Of these, one of the strangest, as proceeding from a scientific man, was that contained in the ‘ Micrographia ’ of Dr. Robert Hooke, printed by the Royal Society in

BRITISH SPIDERS.

1664, namely, that it “is not unlikely but that those great white clouds which appear all the summer-time may be of the same substance” with the gossamer, which he describes as a lock of cylinders “ much re¬ sembling a cobweb, . . . looking like a flake of worsted produced to be spun, though by what means they should be generated or produced is not easily imagined.”

The poets seem to be agreed as to the material of the gossamer. Quarles says —

“ And now autumnal dews are seen To cobweb every green.”

Spenser describes “ a vele of silk and silver thin,” than which

“ More subtle web Arachne cannot spin,

Nor t-lie fine nets which oft we woven see Of scorched deaw do not in th’ ayre more lightly flee j”

In France the gossamer was supposed to be the woolly or cottony matter produced by the Cossus, an insect abundant on vines ; and in England it was formerly be¬ lieved to cause the rot in sheep.

The word is found in an early form as “ gar -summer ,” and is supposed to mean the summer hoar as opposed to the hoar-frost of winter, — gar or gor signifying hoar ; and it appears that the gossamer was ranked with at¬ mospheric and similar phenomena in old times, from Chaucer’s lines —

“ Sore wondren some on cause of thonder,

On ebbe and floud, on gossomer, and on mist.”

In German, the gossamer is Sommer-weben , the webs of summer.

Chapter II. Structure Of The Spider

The spider is composed, externally, of two parts. The fore part consists of the head and chest, which are not separate, as in insects, but form one mass, called the cephalotliorax (from KefyaXy, cephale, head, and (9copaf, thorax , chest). Of this, the covering of the upper side is called the shield, and that of the lower, the sternum or breastplate.

The hind part of the body is connected with the cephalothorax by a fine tubular stalk, and is called the abdomen.

On the upper part of the cephalothorax, in front (Fig. 1), are the eyes, which are simple, and are two,* six, or eight in number. They vary much in size and in the manner of grouping, and form an import¬ ant characteristic in the dis¬ tinction of genera. They are sometimes raised above the level of the cephalotliorax and seated on small tubercles, some-

* There is no English species known with two eyes.

Upper side of cephalotliorax.

BRITISH SPIDERS.

Fig. 2.

Profile of ceplialothorax.

times they are placed on conspicuous projections of the cephalothorax.

Irregularities frequently occur in the number of the eyes, one or two being deficient.

Latreille mentions that they are said to shine in the

••

dark like the eyes of cats ; whilst spiders appear to be able to see both by day and by night.

Below the eyes and above the mouth is a pair of jaw-like organs, known as the falces, forceps, frontal claws, or poison fangs (Figs, la; 2a; 3; 4 a). In all the English genera, except Alypus , these are attached to the face by joints, either in a perpendicular position or with a slight inclination towards the breast (as Fig. 2 a), and have a lateral motion like the jaws of insects. In Atypus the falces are placed horizontally, and move up and down.

Each falx is composed of two parts (Fig. 4 a), the base and the fang. The fang is hard, sharp, curved, and moveable, and is attached bv a joint to the base, which has a groove on the inner edge, into which the fang is usually folded down when at rest. There is frequently a row of teeth on one or both edges of the groove.

These organs appear to resemble mandibles in their functions, but cannot be classed as such, because, al¬ though used to assist in the process of eating, they are above, and not part of the mouth. Their office appears to be to catch and hold the prey, which they also kill, by means of a poison secreted in a gland (Fig. 3) within the cephalothorax, at the base of each falx, and near the ex¬ tremity of the gullet. This is somewhat, if not altogether,

STRUCTURE OF THE SPIDER.

of the nature of a salivary gland, and secretes a poison which flows through a canal in the falx, and is emitted at a small opening in the tip of the fang. In some spe¬ cies the falces are united.

Below the falces is the mouth.

This is furnished externally with an upper and under lip, and a pair of maxillm or iaws.

. Section of ceplialotho-

Ihe upper lip shows only a hairy rax and falx, showing the

tip, which is, in fact, the termination p015,0U glantL of the palate. The lower lip (Fig. 4 b ) is attached to the sternum or breastplate (Fig. 4 c). The maxillae (Fig. 4 d) are placed in each side of the lower lip, and are fur¬ nished with a pair of long five-jointed palpi (Fig. 4 e).

These vary greatly in the two sexes. In the female they resemble small legs, and usually have one minute¬ toothed or plain claw at the tip. In the male the ter¬ minal joint is very much en¬ larged, and presents a com¬ plicated structure, the full development of which marks the maturity of the spider.

This part, however, though of great scientific value in dis¬ tinguishing species, requires so minute a microscopical examination as to render it of little value to the ordinary student.

Fig. 4.

Under side of ceplialotliorax of Dolomedes mirabilis.

BRITISH SPIDERS.

The legs are eight in number, and are connected by joints with the cephalothorax. They are (except in one foreign genus) composed of seven joints. The first is called the haunch ; the second and third form the thigh ; the fourth and fifth, the shank ; and the sixth and seventh, the foot. Of these, the first, second, and fourth joints (i. e. the haunch and the upper joint of the thigh and of the shank) are usually short.

On the foot are two, three, or more curved claws, which are sometimes plain and sometimes are toothed like a comb. When the claws are only two in number they are placed side by side, and have occasionally a scopula or brush, or pad of large hairs, beneath them. When there are three claws, they are of unequal size : the two larger are placed side by side, one smaller, which is suddenly bent down from near its base, is below them. When there are more than three claws, the additional claws or spines are smaller, are of a different form, and are placed at the sides of and below the foot, one (or more than one) being sometimes a little curved towards the larger claws, and moveable, answering the purpose

of a thumb. There is also occasionally, as in the family Ciniflonidce , a double row of curved spines (Fig. 5) in the upper joint of the foot. These are called calamistra, and are used in the construction of the web.

The legs are hairy and spinous, and are of various re¬ lative lengths and proportions.*

Fig. 5.

Calamistrum.

# Their relative length affords a useful and easily observed character, but the varying width of the breastplate, to which they are attached, renders it necessary to separate them from the body for measurement.

STRUCTURE OF THE SPIDER.

lcr

The above-mentioned parts, namely, the cephalothorax and its appendages, vary much in form, and the varia¬ tions are used as specific characters.

The cephalothorax is in different species more or less oval, heart-shaped, or oblong. The covering is usually of a leathery rather than of a horny substance, but is hard in some species. The surface is hairy or naked, and sometimes glossy. In the medial line of the shield and near the base, there is usually a small longitudinal indentation (Fig. 1, p. 11), from which a series of wrinkles or furrows diverge to the places where the legs are inserted.*