yellowish-white hairs; the fourth pair is the longest, then the first, and the second pair is the
shortest; each tarsus has two curved, slightly pectinated claws at its extremity. The palpi
are short, and resemble the legs in colour.
The male bears a general resemblance to the female, and the relative length of its legs is
the same; but it is smaller, darker coloured, and the grayish band extending along the
middle of the upper part of the abdomen is much less distinctly marked, and sometimes comprises
black, angular lines, whose vertices are directed forwards. The maxillae have a short,
pointed process at the extremity, on the outer side. The palpi are short, strong, and of a
very dark-brown colour; the humeral joint has an obtuse protuberance near its extremity, on
the inner side, and the radial joint has a strong, curved, pointed apophysis at its extremity,
on the outer side; the digital joint is broad, oval, convex and hairy externally, concave within,
comprising the palpal organs, which are highly developed, complicated in structure, and very
prominent, projecting at the base in a convexity extending upwards to the articulation of the
cubital with the radial joint; they are somewhat pointed at the extremity, have two prominent,
corneous, black processes at the base, towards the outer side, and are coloured with different
shades of brown.
In the summer of 1845, Miss Ellen Clayton, of Lancaster, captured specimens of
Salticus tardigradus at Balham, in Surrey. A female, which was placed in a phial, spun a sac
of fine, white silk in June, and attached to its inner surface a lenticular cocoon of delicate,
white silk, of a loose texture, measuring one third of an inch in diameter, in which she
deposited thirty-five spherical eggs, of a pale-yellow colour, not agglutinated together.
M. Koch’s figure, number 1130, is stated to represent a female in the text, but a male is
delineated in the plate.
Salticus formicarius. PI. I ll, fig. 36.
Salticus formicarius, Latr., Gen. Crust, et Insect., tom. i, p. 124.
—- — Sund., Vet. Acad. Handl., 1832, p. 200.
— Koch, Die Arachn., Band xiii, p. 33, tab. 438, figs. 1101, 1102.
' — Blaclcw., Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist., second series, vol. vii,
p. 448.
Attus ' —f . Walck., Hist. Nat. des Insect. Apt., tom. i, p. 470.
Length of the female, £th of an inch.
The cephalo-thorax is long, and slopes abruptly in the posterior region; it is of a
brownish-red colour, the anterior and most elevated part being black. The falces, maxillse,
lip, and sternum, are of a dark, reddish-brown hue. The legs have a reddish-brown colour,
the thighs of the anterior pair being much the darkest, and are marked with longitudinal
black lines; the fourth pair is the longest. The palpi, which are of a reddish-brown hue,
have the digital joint somewhat dilated. The abdomen is of an oblong-oviform figure, and is
divided into two nearly equal parts by an irregular, transverse, white line, whose continuity
is sometimes interrupted in the middle; the anterior part, or that before the transverse white
line, is of a brownish-red colour, and the posterior part is black.
The male closely resembles the female, but it is smaller, rather darker coloured, and its
falces, which are longer and plain on the upper part, are directed forwards. The digital
joint of the palpi is of an oblong-oval form, convex and hairy externally, concave within,
comprising the palpal organs, which are moderately developed.
Dr. Leach has remarked, in the supplement to the fourth, fifth, and sixth editions of the
‘ Encylopsedia Britannica,’ article “Annulosa,” that Attus (Salticus) formicarius is found, though
rarely, in Scotland, and on his testimony its claim to a place among British spiders is
founded.
ff