Textrix lycosina. PI. XII, %. 110.
Textrix lycosina, Sund., Consp. Arachn., p. 19.
— — • Koch, TJebers, des Araclin. Syst., erstes Heft, p. 14.
• • — Koch, Die Arachn., Band viii, p. 46, tab. 266, figs. 623, 624.
— — Blackw., Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist., second series, vol. viii,
p. 336.
— agilis, Blackw., Lond. and Edinb. Phil. Mag., third series, vol. iii, p. 109.
— — Blackw., Research, in Zool., p. 348, pi. 3, figs. 1, 2.
Agelena lycosina, Sund., Yet. Acad. Handl., 1831, p. 130.
Tegenaria lycosina, Walck., Hist. Nat. des Insect. Apt., tom. ii, p. 15.
Titulus 20, Lister, Hist. Animal. Angl., De Aran., p. 67, tab. 1, fig. 20.
Xength of the female, ^ths of an inch; length of the cephalo-thorax, |th, breadth, ^ th ;
breadth of the abdomen, gth; length of a posterior leg, 57eth s ; length of a leg of the third
pair, ^ths.
The cephalo-thorax is compressed, elongated, and prominent before, and the sides,
which are rounded, depressed, and glossy, are marked with furrows converging towards
a narrow indentation in the medial line; it is of a dark, brownish-black colour, with a
yellowish-white band of short hairs extending along the middle, and numerous long, black
hairs in front. The falces are strong, conical, armed with a few teeth on the inner surface,
and inclined towards the sternum, which is heart-shaped. These parts, with the maxillae and
lip, have a brownish-black hue, the two latter organs being much the palest, particularly
at their extremities. The legs are provided with hairs, and numerous erect, black spines, and
are of a light-brown colour, with brownish-black annuli; 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, which is furnished with two pairs of small teeth. The palpi resemble
the legs in colour, and have a slender, curved, pectinated claw at their extremity. The
abdomen is oviform, thickly covered with hairs, convex above, and projects a little over the
base of the cephalo-thorax; the upper part is black, with a broad, dentated, yellowish-white
band extending along the middle; the anterior part of the band comprises four small,
irregular, black spots, forming a parallelogram; the sides are mottled with yellowish-white,
and the under part, which has a reddish-brown tint, is sparingly spotted with black and
yellowish-white; the superior spinners are triarticulate, much longer than the rest, and have
the spinning-tubes disposed on the inferior surface of the terminal joint; their colour
and that of the intermediate spinners is red-brown, and the inferior ones are black; a small,
prominent, red-brown process is connected with the posterior margin of the sexual organs;
and the branchial opercula have a yellowish-white tint.
The male, though smaller and darker than the female, resembles her in the design
formed by the distribution of its colours. The cubital and radial joints of its palpi, which
are short, are supplied with some long, black bristles, and the latter projects a strong,
acute apophysis from its extremity, on the outer sid e ; the digital joint is of an oblong-oval
figure, pointed at the end ; it is convex and hairy externally, concave within, comprising the
palpal organs, which are highly developed, with a large and very prominent process at
the base, whose extremity is crescent-shaped, and a long, finely-pointed spine originating at
the base, on the inner side, and directed in a curve to the outer sid e; they are of a brown-
black colour, tinged with red.
Professor Sundevall was the first who proposed to found upon this species the genus
Textrix, which he defined in his ‘Conspectus Arachnidum/published in 1833; a like proposition,
made in the autumn of the same year, was announced in the ‘ London and Edinburgh
Philosophical Magazine;’ and it is a remarkable coincidence that the same generic name
should be conferred on this spider in both instances.
Textrix lycosina, which has a relation of analogy with the Lycosidce, by the disposition
and relative size of its eyes, is widely distributed in Great Britain, most commonly occupying
crevices in rocks, stone walls, and the bark of old trees. Its snare consists of a sheet of web,
supported both above and below by fine lines intersecting one another at various angles,
and attached to it and to adjacent objects by their extremities; a cylindrical tube, in
connexion with the snare, usually extends to the spider’s retreat. The sexes pair in June, and
in the following month the female deposits between fifty and sixty spherical eggs, of a
pale-yellow colour, not adherent among themselves, in a lenticular cocoon of white silk,
of a fine but compact texture, measuring one fourth of an inch in diameter; it is attached to
stones by a small covering of white web, on the exterior surface of which particles of
soil and other materials are frequently distributed.
This spider, with a change of integument, is capable of reproducing the legs, palpi, and
terminal joint of the superior spinners after they have been removed by amputation.
A solitary instance of the capture of Textrix lycosina in Ireland is recorded by Mr. R.
Templeton.
END OF PART 1.