326 EPËIRIDÆ.
The cephalo-thorax is compressed before, broad in front, rounded on the sides, moderately
convex, and has a large indentation in the medial line; it is of a brown-red colour, and is
clothed with hoary hairs, which are densest on the lateral margins, and in the cephalic region.
The falces are powerful, conical, vertical, and armed with teeth on the inner surface; the
maxillae are straight, short, strong, and rounded at the extremity; the lip is semicircular, but
slightly pointed at the apex; and the sternum, which is heart-shaped, and sparingly clothed
with hoary hairs, has small prominences on the sides, opposite to the legs. These parts are
of a very dark-brown colour, with the exception of the extremities of the maxillae and lip,
which have a pale, reddish-brown hue. The legs are long, robust, provided with hairs and
erect spines, and of a yellow-brown hue, with dark-brown annuli; the femora have a broad
annulus at their extremity, that on each of the anterior ones extending nearly over half the
jo int; the tarsi are terminated by three claws of the usual structure, below which there are
several smaller ones. The palpi resemble the legs in colour, and have a curved, pectinated
claw at their extremity. The four intermediate eyes are seated on a prominence and nearly
form a square, the two anterior ones, which are rather wider apart than the posterior ones,
being the largest of the eigh t; the eyes of each lateral pair are placed obliquely on a small
tubercle, but are not contiguous. The abdomen is oviform, thinly clothed with hairs, convex
above, projecting over the base of the cephalo-thorax; the upper part is of a dull-yellow hue,
a large, leaf-like, brownish-black mark, mottled with dull-yellow, whose lateral margins are
sinuous, and which tapers to the spinners, extending along the middle; the anterior part of
this mark comprises a dull-yellow triangle, which includes a brownish-black one, both having
their vertices directed forwards ; the posterior part of the mark comprises a dull-yellow cross,
the longitudinal portion of which tapers towards the spinners, and includes a brownish-black
line, which is broadest near its anterior extremity; the transverse portion of the cross is
somewhat curved, and its extremities frequently break the continuity of the_leaf-like mark,
whose posterior part is crossed by several dull-yellow bars ; the sides have a dull-yellow hue,
a broad, brown-black band, mottled with dull-yellow, and dentated at its superior margin,
extending along each; the under part has a brown-black hue, with a curved, yellowish line
on each side; the sexual organs have, in connexion with their posterior margin, a short,
strong process directed forwards, on each side of which there is a small, glossy ^protuberance;
their colour is dark-brown, tinged with red; and that of the branchial opercula is brown.
The male, though smaller and slenderer than the female, resembles her in the design
formed by the distribution of its colours. Its palpi are short; the cubital joint has at its
extremity, in front, two long, curved bristles, directed forwards; the radial is larger than the
cubital joint, and projects a strong process from its outer side, which is gibbous near the
base, and amply provided with long hairs ; the digital joint has a brown hue, and is somewhat
oval, having a curved process at its base directed outwards; it is convex and hairy
externally, concave within, comprising the palpal organs, .which are highly developed and
complicated in structure; near their base there is a long, slender, prominent, bifid process,
with a small protuberance at its base, on the inner sid e; the superior division of this process,
which is the stronger, is rounded at its extremity, and the inferior one terminates in a point;
both are slightly curved towards the inner side; lower down a prominent, depressed, yellowish-
brown process occurs, which is enlarged and rounded at its extremity, and near whose summit,
on the inner side, the taper and finely pointed end of a strong process curved round the
EPËIRA.
extremity of these organs, terminates ; the colour of the palpal organs is dark-reddish and
yellowish-brown intermixed. The convex sides of the digital joints are directed towards
each other.
. Much confusion in the synonyma of E pëira apoclisa has been occasioned by some of its
numerous varieties having, without sufficient investigation, been described as distinct species.
In attempting to elucidate this intricate subject, the difficulties attending endeavours to
reconcile conflicting opinions in such cases, which are well known to naturalists, and are
unusually great in this department of zoology, may be alleged as an excuse for any errors
unwittingly fallen into. Perhaps the E pëira fo lio ta and the E pëira nameosa of M. Koch,
‘ Die Arachniden/ B. xi, pp. 119, 120, might be added to the synonyma already given ; but
as doubt may be entertained on this point, it has been deemed better to omit them.
Epëira apoclisa frequents gorse, heath, and rank herbage growing near the margins of
lakes, pools and brooks, or in other damp situations, among which it constructs a dome-shaped
cell of white silk of a compact texture. In this cell, after distributing upon its exterior
surface the withered leaves of plants and closing its entrance with a tissue of silk, the spider
passes the winter in a state of torpidity. During the summer and autumn the female incloses
in cells of a similar construction several subglobose cocoons of yellow silk of a loose texture,
measuring, on an average, ^ths of an inch in diameter, each of which contains about 220
spherical eggs of a pale-brown colour, agglutinated together in a lenticular mass. On the
18th of July, 1846, both sexes of a small insect belonging to the family Ichheumonidoe, the
female of which is apterous, came out of a cocoon of this spider, and in 1842 specimens of
the Same insect were obtained from a cocoon of E pëira umbratica.
M. Walckenaer, in referring to an interesting fact recorded by Lister, has strangely
misinterpreted the meaning of that author ; he states that “ Lister a observe des larves
dTchneumon dans les nids de cette espèce” (Epëira apoclisa): “ ces larves se sont transformées
sous ses yeux et ont pris leur vol dans l’air” (* Hist. Nat. des Insect. Apt./ t. ii,
p. 65). The source of error will be immediately perceived on perusing the following passage
cited from the ‘ Tractatus de Araneis’ of the English naturalist, page 40 : -# f In nido autem
altero divulso triplicem, ut supra dictum est, foetum observavi. Inter primum vero partum
sex aderant parvæ Chrysalides sive Thecæ teretes, solidæ, utraque extremitate retusæ, sub-
lividæ, id sc. genus, e quibus Muscæ tripiles, a Moufeto nostro sic dictæ, antiquis vero
Ichneumones vespæ appellatæ, excludi soient. Ex ipsis autem Araneolis natu majoribus, qui
sc. horum vermiculorum voracitatem, dum in ovo, effugerant, quotquot a me aëri expositi,
protinus fila ejaculando avolavere ; non injucundo sane spectaculo !”
The snares spun by Epëira apoclisa vary considerably in extent ; upwards of 120,000
viscid globules are distributed upon the elastic spiral line in a net of large dimensions, yet
under favorable circumstances the time required for its completion seldom exceeds forty
minutes.
This species is not uncommon in Scotland and Ireland.