in diameter, in which she deposits eighty or ninety spherical eggs of a brown colour, slightly
cemented together in a subglobose mass. The cocoon is attached to walls and the inferior
surface of stones by a thin covering of whitish web. The female has been observed to
change her integument five times before she arrives at maturity, once in the cocoon, and four
times after quitting it.
In December, 1842, and March, 1843, several cocoons of Epeira calophytta were procured,
comprising larvae of two distinct species of insects belonging to the family Ichneumonidce,
which fed upon the ova contained in the cocoons and increased rapidly in siz e ; on being converted
into pupae, the females were observed to have the ovipositor turned over the posterior
extremity of the abdomen. In the spring of 1843 both sexes of each species, in the imago or
perfect state, issued from the cocoons, which had been placed in closed phials. These insects
are very dissimilar in size and colour, and the eggs deposited by each in a single cocoon
differ in number inversely as the dimensions of the females which produce them; occasionally,
the larvae of both species have been noticed in the same cocoon, but they have not hitherto
been detected in the cocoons of any other spider, however favorable the circumstances might
be as regards time, condition, and locality under which they were examined.
Epeira calophytta usually employs a radius as a medium of communication between its
net and a small tubular cell of white silk which constitutes its retreat, instead of spinning a
separate line for that purpose; and this peculiar appropriation, whether the radius be in the
plane of the net or whether it be withdrawn from that plane, as is frequently the case, imparts
an unfinished appearance to the snare, as it prevents the spider from giving a spiral form
to the elastic line on which the viscid globules are disposed, though this is sometimes
attempted with a greater or less ^degree of success. No sooner does the spider arrive
at one of the radii adjacent to that in connection with its cell than it returns, traversing the
framework of the snare till it arrives at the adjacent radius on the opposite side, when it
retraces its steps, and thus, oscillating between the two, spins a number of curved, viscid
lines or arcs of circles diminishing in length from the circumference of the net towards the
centre. Lister was well acquainted with this peculiarity, so common, in the snare oi Epeira
calophytta, but has fallen into the error of supposing that it occurs invariably. See his
‘Tractatus de Araneis,’ p. 48.
Sometimes this species places its net in situations not entirely surrounded by objects to
which it can immediately proceed to attach boundary-lines. In such cases its operations are
deserving of attention. After connecting several radii with the most accessible points, it
fixes a filament to that extremity of one of them which is furthest from the.centre of its net:
along this radius the spider proceeds, drawing out the filament from the spinners and guiding
it with the claws of a posterior leg, till the point of union with one o f the adjacent radii is
attained ; upon this radius it steps, and passing to its other extremity there makes fast the
filament, by this simple process connecting with marginal lines distant objects between, which
lio direct communication previously existed.
Epeira ■ calophytta presents a striking example o f, the insufficiency of the characters
employed by M. Koch in distributing the Araneidea into genera and families; though connected
with the Epeiridee by the closest relations of affinity, yet he has placed it in.his genus Eucharia,
which he includes in the family Theridiidce (‘Uebers. des Arachn. Syst.* erstes Heft, p. 7).
E p ë i r a a c a l y p h a . PI. X X V , fig. 2 4 6 .
Epeira acalypha, "Walck., Hist. Nat.'des Insect. Apt., tom. ii, p. 50.
•' 1 ' — Walck., Ibid., tom. ii, p. 501.
___ ______ Blackw., Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist., second series, vol. xx,
p. 502.
— genista, Hahn, Die Arachn., Band i, p. 11, tab. 3, fig. 7.
Zilla — Koch, Uebers. des Arachn. Syst., erstes Heft, p. 5.
BM g g B decora, K o ch , Ib id ., e rste s H e ft, p. 5.
— acalypha, Koch, Die Arachn., Band vi, p. 139, tab. 213, figs. 530, 531.
Length of.th* female,-*ths\of an inch ; length of the cephalo-thorax, Ath, breadthllth ;
breadth of the abdomenjf ÿth; length of an-anterior leg. ith; length of a leg of the third
pair, Jjths.
The legs are moderately long, provided with hairs and spines, and of a yellowish-brown
colour tinged with green, a line on . the upper and. under sides of the thighs of the first and
second pairs, the .extremities of the joints, and a. few scattered spots having a blackish hue,
each tarsus is terminated by three claws of the usual structure, and below them there are
several smaller ones. The palpi resemble the legs in colour, and have a slightly curved,
pectinated claw at their extremity. The cephalo-thorax is small, convex, glossy, compressed
before, rounded on the sides, and has an indentation in the medial line; it is of a yellowish-
brown colour tinged with green; the lateral margins are black, and a fine line of the same
hue extends along the middle. The eyes are seated on black spots, and the four intermediate
ones nearly form a square ; those of the anterior pair are placed on a small prominence, and
those of the posterior pair are the largest of the eight; the eyes of each lateral pair are seated
on a minute tubercle, and are near to each other, but not in contact.. Thefalces are powerful,
conical, vertical, armed with a few teeth on the inner surface, and of a yellowish-brown colour,
being darkest at the extremity. The maxillae are strong, straight, and enlarged and rounded
at the extremity ; the lip is' semicircular, but somewhat pointed at the apex ; and the sternum
is heart-shaped, with prominènces on the sides, opposite to the legs. These parts are black,
the extremities of the first two being yellowish-brown. The abdomen is oviform, sparingly
clothed with short hairs, glossy, very convex above, and projects greatly over the base of the
cephalo-thorax ; the upper part is of a greenish-yellow colour, freckled with yellowish-white ;
four black spots occur in the anterior region, two in the medial , line and one on each side, and
in the posterior region there are three rows of confluent black spots which extend to the
spinners; each side is marked with four oblique, black lines, and the under part, which is
black, has a line extending from each dark-brown. branchial operculum to the spinners, and
several spots at their base of a yellowish-white hue ; the sexual organs are prominent, and of
a red-brown colour.
M. Koch remarks that the male is much slenderer than the female, and has, in proportion
to its size, somewhat longer legs. The black line extending along the middle of the cephalo-
thorax is longer and more conspicuous, the abdomen is redder, particularly on the sides, and