female constructs one or two lenticular cocoons of compact, white silk, measuring about five
sixths of an inch in diameter; they are usually placed on the earth, or are attached to a stone,
and contain numerous small, yellow eggs.
Among the new genera proposed by M. Koch, for the reception of certain groups into
which he has separated the Drassi, there are several, including British species, which do not
appear to possess characters sufficiently marked to warrant their adoption.
D r a s s u s a t e r . PI. VI, fig. 63.
Drassus ater, Latr., Gen. Crust, et Insect., tom. i, p. 87.
— — Walck., Hist. Nat. des Insect. Apt., tom. i, p. 618.
— Hahn, Die Arachn., Band ii, p. 54, tab. 61, fig. 142.
-— — Blackw., Linn. Trans., vol. xix, p. 114.
— ■— Blackw., AnnalS and Mag. of Nat. Hist., second series, vol. viii, p. 39.
Melanophora subterranea, Koch, Uebers. des Arachn. Syst., erstes Heft, p. 17.
, Koch, Die Arachn., Band vi, p. 85, tab. 201, figs. 491, 492.
atra, Koch, Die Arachn., Band vi, p. 88, tab. 201, fig. 493.
Filistata — Wider, Museum Senckenberg. Band i, p. 202, taf. 14, fig. 2.
Length of the female, Ts6ths of an inch; length of the cephalo-thorax, jth, breadth, rrth ;
breadth of the abdomen, Ath; length of a posterior leg, Aths; length of a leg of the third
pair, ith.
The colour of this spider is brownish-black, with the exception of the tarsi, the sides of
the thighs, the extremities of the maxillae, the sexual organs, and the fangs of the falces,
which have an obscure, reddish-brown tint, and the branchial opercula, which are of a dull-
orange hue. The eyes are disposed in two short, transverse, parallel, nearly straight rows on
the anterior part of the cephalo-thorax ;• the intermediate eyes of the anterior row, which is
near the frontal margin, are the smallest of the eight, and are seated on a slight protuberance.
The cephalo-thorax is large, oval, convex, glossy, somewhat pointed before, and thinly
covered with hairs. The falces are powerful, conical, rather prominent, and are armed with
a few small teeth on the inner surface. The maxillae are strong, gibbous at the base, with an
oblique, transverse furrow near the extremity, and are curved towards the lip, which is large
and oval. The sternum is .oval, glossy, and sparingly supplied with hairs. The legs are
robust and hairy; the fourth pair is the longest, then the first, and the third pair is the
shortest; each tarsus is terminated by two curved, pectinated claws; and the palpi have a
similar claw at their extremity. The abdomen is of an oblong-oviform figure, thickly covered
with hairs, and projects a little over the base of the cephalo-thorax. The spinners are somewhat
cylindrical and rather promihent, the two intermediate ones, which are small, being
united at the base.
The male is father smaller than the female, but it resembles her in colour. The cubital
and radial joints of the palpi are short; the latter is the stronger, and projects a large, black,
pointed apophysis from its extremity, on the outer sid e ; the digital joint is oval, convex and
hairy externally, concave within, comprising the palpal organs, which are highly developed,
not very complicated in structure, with a small, pointed, corneous process near their extremity,
on the outer side, and are of a dark, reddish-brown colour.
In the mountainous parts of Denbighshire and Caernarvonshire this species is of frequent
occurrence under detached pieces of rock. When, adult, the terminal joint of each intermediate
spinner is directed downwards at right'angles to its base, and the full complement of
papillae or spinning-tubes connected with the short terminal joint of each inferior spinner is
eight. Six of these papillae, which are of large dimensions, are probably used by Drassus ater
in constructing its cocoon, the remarkably compact texture of which is best explained on the
supposition that a copious supply of viscous matter, in a state of fluidity, is employed in
its fabrication; and the other two, situated on the inferior surface of the spinner, at a greater
distance from its extremity than the rest, are minute and almost contiguous. The large
papillae vary in number with the age of the animal; and it is a fact deserving of notice, that
they are not always developed simultaneously on both spinners—four, five, or six being
sometimes observed on one, when three, four, or five only are to be seen on the other;
but the two minute ones are present invariably.
In May the female deposits forty or fifty white, spherical eggs, not agglutinated together,
in a cocoon of a plano-convex figure, attached ‘ to the under side of stones by its plane
surface; it is of a fine but very compact texture, and measures §ths o f an inch in diameter.
When newly constructed it is white, but becomes of a reddish hue before it is abandoned by
the young, which, at that early period of their existence, have each inferior spinner provided
with two large and two small papilke. The female usually remains upon or near the cocoon,
to which she is strongly attached.
Mr. J. Hardy has captured this species in Berwickshire.
D r a s s u s p u s i l l u s . PI. VI, fig. 64.
Melanophora pusilla, Koch, Uebers. des Arachn. Syst., erstes Heft, p. 17.
— —- Koch, Die Arachn.,, Band, vi, p. 90, tab. 202, fig. 406.
Length of the female, jth of an inch; length of the cephalo-thorax, ^th, breadth, Ath ;
breadth of the abdomen, Ath ; length of a posterior leg, ,th ; length of a leg of the third
pair, £th.
The eyes are disposed on the anterior part of thecephalo-thorax in two transverse,'
nearly straight rows; and the intermediate ones of the anterior row, which is situated
immediately above the frontal margin,, are seated on a minute tubercle, and are the smallest
and darkest of the eight. The cephalo-thorax is oval, pointed before, sparingly clothed with
hairs, convex, glossy, somewhat depressed on the sides, which are marked with slight furrows