organs are highly developed, complicated in structure, prominent at the extremity, with
a curved, pointed, red-brown process situated at the base of the most prominent part, on its
outer side, and their prevailing colour is very dark, reddish-brown, approaching to black.
In localities suited to its habits, this active spider is frequently very numerous, constructing
among gorse, heath, and coarse herbage an extensive, horizontal sheet of web,
having a cylindrical tube connected with it, which constitutes the abode of its possessor.
The web is attached to surrounding objects by its margin, and derives additional support
from fine lines, intersecting one another at various angles, whose extremities are in contact
with its surface and with such objects as are situated at a moderate elevation above it.
The sexes pair in July, and in August the female fabricates a large sac of compact, white silk,
which comprises one or two lenticular cocoons, composed of white silk of a fine texture,
measuring about ^ths of an inch in diameter, on an average. Each cocoon, according
to its size, contains from 50 to 120 large, spherical eggs, of a pale-yellow colour, not
agglutinated together, and is enveloped in a lenticular covering of strong, white silk, which is
made secure to the inner surface of the sac by silken lines closely compacted in the form
of short, strong pillars, evidently alluded to by Lister in the following passage: “ Ipse autem
folliculus stella in modum formatus est” (‘De Araneis/ p. 62). This sac is firmly attached to
stems of gorse, heath, or long grass, and has usually withered leaves, particles of soil,
and other materials of various kinds distributed over its surface.
Mr. R. Templeton has detected this species in Ireland.
In the £ Report of the Third Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of
Science, held at Cambridge, in 1833/ p. 445, the fact is enunciated that the superior spinners
of Agelena labyrintlica and some other spiders have the spinning-tubes disposed on the
inferior surface of the elongated terminal joint, and consequently, that the opinion previously
entertained, that the function exercised by these organs is simply that of touch, and that they
are employed solely in regulating the application of the spinners to appropriate objects,
is decidedly erroneous.
A g e l e n a H y n d m a n i i . PI. X, fig. 98.
Agelena Hyndmanii, Templeton, MS. History of Irish Arachnids.
Length of the female, jth of an inch.
The intermediate eyes of the anterior row are the smallest of the eight. TJie céphalothorax
is rectangular anteriorly, and circular posteriorly ; it is of a brownish-green colour, the
cephalic region being much darker ; an abbreviated, dark line, forked before, occurs in the
middle, whence other lines proceed towards the origins of the legs, but terminate abruptly
before'they reach the margin; underneath it is of a greenish-brown colour, with dark edges.
The abdomen is ovate, of a very deep-green hue, with a dentated, central, pale fascia,
extending along the upper part, and receiving at its base a dark-green or black, lance-shaped
macula ; underneath it is of a grass-green hue. The legs are spiny, hairy, and of a greenish-
brown colour, with darker annuli ; the fourth pair is the longest, then the first, and the third
pair is the shortest. Sometimes this species has the abdominal fascia brown, and the sides
jet-black.
Mr. G. C. Hyndman detected a specimen of this Agelena among grass at Cranmore.
A g e l e n a e l e g a n s . PI. X, fig. 99.
Agelena elegans, Blackw., Linn. Trans., vol. xviii, p. 619.
__ j Blackw., Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist., second series, vol. viii,
p. 101. -
__ — Walck., Hist. Nat. des Insect. Apt., tom. iv, p. 463.
Hahnia pratensis, Koch, Die Arachn., Band viii, p. 64, tab. 270, fig. 639.
Length of the female, |th of an in ch ; length of the cephalo-thorax, iSth, breadth, ^ tli;
breadth of the abdomen, T‘3t h ; length of a posterior leg, 3th ; length of a leg of the third
pair, jth.
The cephalo-thorax is compressed before, rounded on the sides, which are depressed and
marked with furrows converging towards an indentation in the middle, and there is a row of
long hairs, directed forwards, in the medial line; the falces are strong, conical, armed with a
few very minute teeth on the inner surface, and inclined towards the sternum, which is broad
and heart-shaped ; the maxillae are short, gibbous at the base, and slightly inclined towards the
lip, which is nearly quadrate, being rather broader at the base than at the extremity; the
fourth pair of legs is the longest, and the other pairs are almost equal in length. These parts
and the palpi are glossy, and of a yellowish-red colour, the base of the lip being the darkest.
Each tarsus is terminated by three claws; the two superior ones are curved and pectinated,
and the inferior one is inflected near its base; and the palpi have a curved claw at their
extremity. The intermediate eyes of the anterior row are the largest of the eight. The
abdomen is short, broad, thickly covered with hairs, somewhat larger at the posterior than at
the anterior extremity, convex above, projecting over the base of the cephalo-thorax; its
colour is very dark-brown, approaching to black, the under part being the palest; along the
middle of the upper part a series of very obscure, angular lines of a lighter hue extends,
whose vertices are directed forwards; and on each side of the anterior part, near its union
with the cephalo-thorax, there is a blackish spot of an oval form; the colour of the spinners
is yellowish-red; they are arranged in a transverse row immediately below the anus, and the
exterior ones, which are the longest, are triarticulate and have the spinning-tubes disposed on
the inferior surface of the terminal joint; the branchial opercula have a yellowish-white
tint.
The male is smaller than the female, but it resembles her in colour. The humeral joint
of the palpi has a curved, pointed, yellowish-red process on the under side, near the middle;
the cubital and radial joints are short; the former is much the larger, very gibbous above,
and has a small, pointed, blackish apophysis near its extremity, on the outer sid e; the latter