their colour is brownish-yellow, mingled with red-brown. The convex sides of the digital
joints are directed towards each other. On the under part of the abdomen there is a very
dark-brown, prominent, transverse fold.
In the summer of 1860 the Rev. O. P. Cambridge took adult and immature males and
females of this species at Hursley, near Winchester, and at Bloxworth, in Dorsetshire.
Theridion varians. PI. XIV, fig. 120.
Theridion varians, Hahn, Die Arachn., Band i, p. 93, tab. 22, figs. 71, 72.
— — Walck., Hist. Nat. des Insect. Apt., tom. ii, p. 314.
5*2 — Blackw., Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist., second series, vol. viii,
p. 443.
Theridium — Koch, Die Arachn., Band xii, p. 134, tab. 428, figs. 1056— 1058.
Length of the female, |th of an inch; length o f the cephalo-thorax, ^th, breadth, ^th ,■
breadth of the abdomen, ^ th ; length of an anterior leg, 1t h ; length of a leg of the third
pair, 5th.
The cephalo-thorax is short, oval, convex, glossy, and has a large indentation in the
medial lin e ; it is of a yellowish-white colour, with a broad, black band extending along the
middle, fine, black, lateral margins, and a spot o f the same hue on the frontal margin. The
falces, which are conical and vertical, have a yellowish tint, with a black spot at the base, in
front. The maxillae are convex at the base, and inclined towards the lip, which is somewhat
triangular. The colour of these parts is yellowish, each having a black spot at the base.
The sternum is heart-shaped, of a pale-yellow hue, and is broadly bordered with black, except
at the anterior part. The legs are long, slender, and diaphanous, with black annuli; the
first pair is the longest, then the fourth, and the third pair is the shortest; each tarsus is
terminated by three claws; the two superior ones are curved and pectinated, and the inferior
one is inflected near its base. The palpi, which are short, resemble the legs in colour,
and have a curved, pectinated claw at their extremity. The four intermediate eyes form a
square, the two anterior ones, which are seated on a protuberance, being the darkest and
rather the largest of the eigh t; those constituting each lateral pair are contiguous, and are
placed on a small tubercle. The abdomen is subglobose, glossy, thinly clothed with hairs,
and projects over the base of the cephalo-thorax; it is of a dark-brown colour on the upper
part, a broad, strongly dentated band, which tapers to the spinners, extending along the
middle; this band has a reddish-brown tint, except at the extremities and margins, which are
yellowish, and it comprises some irregular black lines; at the anterior extremity there is a
transverse, curved, black line, whose convexity is directed upwards; the sides and under
part are of a dull, yellowish-brown colour, mottled with numerous minute, irregular, yellowish
spots, the superior margin of the former being strongly dentated; a brownish-black, oval spot
occurs on each side of the upper part of the sexual organs, and a larger one of the same hue
is situated between those organs and the spinners; the sexual organs have a longitudinal,
red-brown septum in the middle, and their posterior margin is triangular, prominent, and
black; the colour of the branchial opercula is pale-yellow. This spider, as its name imports,
varies greatly in colour. The female becomes paler after she has deposited her eggs, and
the brownish-black spot between the sexual organs and the spinners is then frequently almost
obliterated.
The male is smaller and somewhat darker coloured than the female, and its falces are
gibbous at the base, in front. Its abdomen is oviform, convex above, and has a veiy
prominent, transverse fold near the middle of the under part. The colour of its palpi is
yellowish-brown, with the exception of the radial and digital joints, which have a dark-brown
hue; the radial joint is smaller than the cubital, and is produced on the outer side; the
digital joint is oval, convex and hairy externally, concave within, comprising the palpal
organs; these organs are highly developed, complicated in structure, with a strong, black,
prominent, crescent-shaped process towards the inner side, a fine spine near the middle, which
is curved downwards, and a short, pointed process at the extremity extending a little beyond
the end of the joint; they are of a red-brown colour. The convex sides of the digital joints
are directed towards each other.
Theridion varians occurs in localities similar to those frequented by Tkeridim denticulatum,
and is a common British spider. It pairs in June, and in July the female constructs several
globular cocoons, of dull, white silk, of a very loose texture, the largest of which measures
about one seventh of an inch in diameter; they are attached to objects situated near the
upper part of the snare, and contain, according to their size, from twenty to sixty spherical
eggs,' of a yellowish-white colour, not adherent among themselves. Withered leaves, dried
moss, and particles of indurated earth are generally disposed about the cocoons.
On the 14th of June, 1852, an adult female of this species was captured at Oakland,
which had only six eyes; the two posterior intermediate ones were entirely wanting, and the
posterior eye of each lateral pair had not half of the usual size. An inexperienced observer
might be induced by the symmetrical arrangement of the organs of vision in this individual,
not only to give it a place in the tribe Senoadina, but also to propose a new genus for its
reception.
Of the three figures of Theridion varians, 1056, 1057, and 1058, given by M. Koch, in
the twelfth volume of ‘ Die Arachniden,’ M. Walckenaer has placed the first and second
among the synonyma of Theridion. dentimlahum, and the third among those of Theridion U ndim ;
he has also referred to fig. 1056 as a portrait of a female, whereas it most unequivocally represents
a male (‘ Hist. Nat. des Insect. Apt.,’ t. iv, pp. 489, 490). With due deference to the
opinion of so accomplished an arachnologist as M. Walckenaer, there does not appear to be
any sufficient reason to question the accuracy of the view taken by M. Koch.