legs are robust, provided with hairs and sessile spines, and are of a very dark reddish-brown
colour, the metatarsi and tarsi being the palest; each tarsus is terminated by three claws; the
two superior ones are curved and deeply pectinated, and the inferior one is inflected near its
base. The palpi are short, and resemble the legs in colour. The abdomen is hairy, somewhat
cylindrical, rather larger at the posterior than at the anterior extremity, and projects a little
over the base of the cephalo-thorax; it has a dark-brown hue, with an obscure, dentated,
blackish band in the medial line of the upper part; the middle of the under part has a
reddish-brown tint, and is bordered laterally by a fine, yellowish-white line ; each of these
lines unites at the spinners with the extremity of a fine line of the same hue extending
obliquely along the side; the colour of the branchial opercula is yellow, and that of the
tracheal opercula yellowish-brown.
The sides and under part of the abdomen are lighter coloured, and the blackish,
dentated, longitudinal band occupying the middle of its upper part is more conspicuous in
the male than the female. The relative length of the legs also is different in the sexes, the
male having the third pair longer than the fourth. The radial joint of its palpi is larger than
the cubital; the digital joint is long, slender, and cylindrical, except at the base, where it is
dilated, and from the under side of this enlargement the palpal organs project at right
angles; they are pyriform, tapering to the extremity, which is slightly curved, and are of a
red-brown colour.
The claim of this fine species to a place among our indigenous spiders rests on the
authority of Dr. Leach, who has recorded an instance of its capture at Plymouth, in the Supplement
to the fourth, fifth, and sixth editions .of the ‘Encyclopaedia Britannica,’ article
Annulosa.
Segestria senoculata. PI. XXVIII, fig. 270.
Segestria senoculata, Walck., Hist. Nat. des Insect. Apt., tom. i, p. 268.
— — Latr., Gen. Crast. et Insect., tom. i, p. 89.
— — Sund., Yet. Acad. Handl., 1831, p. 145.
—. '--H'-— Hahn, Die Arachn., Band i, p. 6, tab. 1, fig. 2.
- Koch, TJebers. des Arachn. Syst., erstes Heft, p. 21.
— , Koch, Die Arachn., Band v, p. 75, tab. 164, fig. 388.
'—if . — Blackw., Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist., second series, vol. x,
p. 251.
Tilulus 24, Lister, Hist. Animal. Angl., De Aran., p. 74, tab. 1, fig. 24.
Length of the female, fths of an inch ; length of the cephalo-thorax, gth, breadth, ^th ;
breadth of the abdomen, gth; length of an anterior leg, fths; length of a leg of the third
pair, grd.
The disposition of the eyes in this species is precisely the same as in Segestria perjida.
The cephalo-thorax • is long, somewhat quadrilateral, convex, glossy, sparingly clothed with
hairs, without an indentation in the medial line, and of a dark-brown colour. The falces are
strong, conical, prominent, glossy, provided with long hairs in front, armed with teeth on the
inner surface, and of a brownish-black hue. The colour of the maxillae and lip is dark-
brown, with the exception of their extremities, which have a red-brown tint. The sternum
is of an elongated oval form, with small eminences on the sides, opposite to the legs, and has
a pale-brown hue. The legs are abundantly provided with hairs, and have sessile spines on
the inferior surface of tibiae and metatarsi; they are of a yellowish-brown colour, with
brownish-black annuli, the tibiae, metatarsi and tarsi of the first pair, and the metatarsi and
tarsi of the second pair having a strong tinge of r ed ; each tarsus is terminated by three
claws; the two superior ones are curved and deeply pectinated, and the inferior one is
inflected near its base. The palpi resemble the legs in colour, but are without annuli; the
radial and digital joints have a reddish-brown tint, and the latter has a small, curved claw at
its extremity. The abdomen is nearly cylindrical, thinly clothed with hairs, glossy, and
projects a little over the base of the cephalo-thorax; it is of a dull yellowish-brown colour,
with a series of contiguous, brownish-black, rhomboidal marks, extending along the medial
line of the upper part, and numerous minute spots of the same hue on the sides and under
part; the spinners are situated a little below the posterior extremity of the abdomen, and,
with the branchial and tracheal opercula, have a yellowish-white tint.
The sexes are similar in colour, but the male is the smaller, and its legs differ from those
of the female in their relative length, the third pair being rather longer than the fourth. In
the structure of the palpi and palpal organs it resembles the male of Segestria perjida,, and the
colour of the latter is pale red-brown, with a spiral band of a darker hue.
Segestria senoculata is of frequent occurrence in many parts of England, Wales, and Ireland,
and in December, 1848, a young individual was received from Mr. J. Hardy, who captured it
in Berwickshire. It spins a long tube, which serves for a domicile, in the crevices of rocks
and walls, and under lichens growing on trees. Towards the end of May or the beginning of
June the female deposits between eighty and ninety spherical eggs of a yellowish-white colour,
not agglutinated together, in a lenticular cocoon of white silk of a fine but compact texture,
measuring jth of an inch in diameter, which is inclosed in a silken cell, attached to objects
near her retreat, and covered with particles of earth and the refuse of her prey.
This species, when in captivity, does not complete its several changes of integument and
arrive at maturity in less than two years, and the term of its existence has been ascertained
to extend through a period of four years. Only three spinning tubes are connected with
each intermediate spinner of this spider; they are situated at its extremity and are of large
dimensions.
Genus SCHÆNOBATES, BlacJcw.
JEges seated on the anterior part of the cephalo-thorax ; four, situated near the frontal
margin, describe a transverse, curved row whose convexity is directed backwards, and behind
each lateral eye another is placed.