are two yellowish-white spots on a black ground, each of which is succeeded by an oblique
line of the same, hue, directed towards the anus; above the spinners a large, oval, ferruginous
space occurs, and the colour of the sides is ferruginous mingled with black; the under part
has a dark-brown tint, with a pale-yellow spot above the outer margin of each branchial
operculum, another immediately below the sexual organs, and an irregular, transverse bar of
the same hue nearer to the spinners; the colour of the sexual organs is brownish-black, and
that of the branchial opercula dull, reddish-brown.
The male is much smaller, darker coloured, and less distinctly marked than the female.
The cubital and radial joints of its palpi are short; the digital joint is oval, with a pointed
process at its base, which falls into a notch in the radial joint; it is convex and hairy
externally, concave within, comprising the palpal organs, which are highly developed,
prominent, complicated in structure, and have a curved process at their extremity which
projects beyond the end of the joint; their colour is red-brown.
This species occurs in the south of England, and was observed by Lister in Cambridgeshire,
Lincolnshire, and Yorkshire. He remarks that it fabricates an extensive snare on the
trunks of large oaks and between the greater branches of trees ; and that towards the end of
June the female usually constructs in this snare a dome-shaped cell, whose concavity is
directed downwards, in which she deposits one or more lenticular cocoons, of a red-brown
colour, containing her eggs.
THERIDION TEPfdariortj m. PI. XIII, fig. 114.
Theridion tepidariorum, Blackw., Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist., second series, vol. xi,
p .1 1 7 .
Theridium, — Koch, Die Arachn., Band viii, p. 75, tab. 273, fig. 646;
tab. 274, figs. 647, 648.
Length of the female, |th of an inch; length of the cephalo-thorax, ^th, breadth, T'5th ;
breadth of the abdomen, 1th ; length of an anterior leg, ^ths; length of a leg of the third
pair, £ths.
The four intermediate eyes form a square, the two anterior ones, which are the largest
and darkest of the eight, being seated on a protuberance; those constituting each lateral pair
are placed on a small tubercle, and are nearly contiguous. The cephalo-thorax is convex,
glossy, slightly compressed before, rounded on the sides, and has a large indentation in the
medial line; the falces are small, conical, and vertical; the maxillae are inclined towards the
lip, which is semicircular; and the sternum is heart-shaped, with small eminences on the
sides opposite to the legs. These parts are of a dark, reddish-brown colour; the falces,
maxillae, and lip being the palest. The legs are long, provided with hairs, and of a yellowish-
brown hue, with dark-brown annulj; the first pair is the longest, then the fourth, and the
third pair is the shortest; the two superior tarsal claws are curved and pectinated, and the
inferior one is inflected near its base. The palpi are short, of a pale, yellowish-brown colour,
with the exception of the digital joint, which has a reddish-brown tint, and are terminated by
a curved, pectinated claw. The abdomen is thinly clothed with hairs, pointed at the spinners,
very convex above, and projects over the base of the cephalo-thorax; on the upper part
various shades of yellowish-brown, black, and yellowish-white colours are distributed in lines,
streaks, and spots; from the anterior part of the summit of the convexity a curved, yellowish-
white line extends on each side, two shorter ones are directed towards the spinners, and
others, more or less curved, towards the cephalo-thorax; on the posterior half there is a large,
yellowish-brown space, bordered irregularly with black, and intersected by transverse, curved,
black bars and lines; the sides are of a yellowish-brown colour, streaked and spotted with
black, and the under part, which has a brownish-black tint, is marked with a yellowish-brown
spot, freckled with white, above the outer margin of each branchial operculum, another below
the sexual organs, and an irregular, transverse bar of the same hue nearer to the spinners;
the sexual organs are conspicuous, and have a dark, reddish-brown tin t; and the colour of
the branchial opercula is yellow. This species varies considerably in colour, but the characteristic
marks on the abdomen are always more or less apparent.
The male is much smaller, darker coloured, and less distinctly marked than the female;
the relative length of its legs also is different, the second pair surpassing the fourth. The
palpi are of a yellowish-brown colour, with the exception of the radial and digital joints,
which have a dark-brown tin t; the radial joint is larger than the cubital; the digital joint is
somewhat oval, with a pointed process at its base, which falls into a notch on the inner side
of the radial joint, and extends to its, articulation with the cubital joint; it is convex and
hairy externally, concave within, comprising the palpal organs, which are highly developed,
prominent, not very complicated in structure, and are terminated by a strong, curved,
corneous process, which projects beyond the extremity of the joint; they are of a red-brown
colour.
Though Theridion tepidariorum has not been observed in the open air in this country, yet
it is not uncommon in conservatories, where it constructs among the stems of plants, and in
the angles formed by partitions, an extensive, complicated snare, somewhat of a pyramidal
form, which consists of numerous fine, glossy lines, intersecting one another in different planes
and at various angles. The sexes pair in June, and during the summer and autumn the
female fabricates several balloon-shaped cocoons of different sizes, varying from one fifth to
one third of an inch in diameter, which she suspends in the upper part of her snare, with the
larger extremities downwards; they are composed of reddish-brown silk, of a fine but compact
texture, and the largest of them sometimes comprises between four hundred and five hundred
spherical eggs, of a pale, yellowish-white colour, not agglutinated together. Young spiders
and cocoons containing eggs may frequently be seen in the snare at the same time.
In Germany, as in Britain, this species has only been met with in conservatories, a
circumstance which has induced M. Koch to conjecture, with great probability, that it is not
indigenous to that country, but that it has been introduced with exotic plants; and this
conjecture applies with equal force to our own country. His words are, “ Fast möchte ich
diese Art als eine ursprünglich deutsche in Zweifel ziehen, indem sie, wie es scheint, nur in
warmen Glashäusern vorkommt; vielleicht ist ihre Brut mit aussereuropäischen Pflanzen
nach Deutschland gebracht worden” (‘Die Arachn.,’ B. viii, p. 78).