Part 12

$Epeira displicata.$--Large females are quarter of an inch long, but they are usually smaller. The cephalothorax and legs are brownish yellow, without markings. The abdomen is oval and light yellow or crimson, the latter color more common in the young. Sometimes there are two white lines in the middle. At the sides of the hinder half of the abdomen are three pairs of round black spots surrounded by lighter rings (fig. 405). The under side of the abdomen is a little darker than the upper side, with no distinct markings.

The male has the legs and cephalothorax darker brown than the female, and the black spots on the abdomen larger and surrounded more distinctly with white, which sometimes forms a stripe on each side. The tibiæ of the second legs are not thickened. The webs are usually small and among leaves.

$Epeira globosa$ or $triaranea.$--Length about a quarter of an inch, the male a third smaller. The abdomen is round and as wide as long, and in the female large for the size of the spider. The front half of the abdomen is nearly covered by four white, yellow, or pink spots, partly united into a rectangular figure surrounded by an irregular black line (fig. 407). The hinder half has three or four pairs of black spots. The general color is light brownish yellow. The cephalothorax has a fine middle line from the eyes to the dorsal groove and indistinct dark marks at the sides of the head. The first and second legs have slightly darker rings at the end and middle of each joint, the third and fourth pairs at the ends of the joints only. The male is marked like the female and has the tibia of the second legs slightly curved and thickened with large spines on the inner side.

This spider makes a very large tent, out of which a strong thread runs to the center of the round web (fig. 406). From the tent a loose and irregular web extends downward, sometimes covering half of the round web (fig. 406). Opposite the thread leading to the tent, a segment of the round web is left open or partly open without any sticky threads.

$Epeira labyrinthea.$--This spider makes a large irregular web in which is a tent connected by a thread with the small round web below, much as in Epeira globosa. The female is a fifth of an inch long. The abdomen is oval and not unusually large, as it is in globosa (fig. 408). The cephalothorax is long, dark brown in the middle and lighter at the sides, and almost white in front around and behind the eyes. The legs are white, with narrow dark brown rings at the ends of the joints and wider yellow rings on patella and femur of the first and second pairs. The abdomen is marked with four long white spots in front and a dark brown middle band behind. At the sides the abdomen is light brown or yellow. On the under side the ends of the mandibles and the maxillæ are black. The sternum is black, with a white middle stripe. The abdomen has a short middle white stripe surrounded by a large dark spot, and there are several yellow spots along the sides and around the spinnerets.

The round web of this spider is not large, generally three or four inches in diameter, but the irregular part above and partly covering it may be much larger, sometimes as much as six inches across, where the shape of the surrounding plants allows it (fig. 409). One segment at the upper part of the round web is partly open, as in globosa (p. 173) and Zilla (p. 185), and here a strong thread passes to the nest, which is often covered by a large spreading tent. In the last of the summer several small, flat, brown cocoons are strung together in the irregular web above the tent (fig. 410), which is then smaller and less regularly made.

$Epeira gibberosa.$--A small and light-colored species living among grass and in bushes in open fields. The adult female is from a sixth to a quarter of an inch long, and the male smaller. The cephalothorax and legs are light greenish yellow, and the abdomen gray, or light yellow covered with lighter spots and black and yellow markings (fig. 411). The abdomen is marked with two parallel lines on the hinder half and three smaller black spots in front, the latter often absent. The parallel lines are sometimes broken up into rows of spots, and these may form part of several transverse black and yellow marks. The cephalothorax has a narrow black line in the middle from the dorsal groove nearly to the eyes. The feet are black toward the claws, and the spines of the legs are long and black. The first and second femora have a longitudinal black line on the under side. The abdomen is oval, half longer than wide. The cephalothorax is high in the middle and slopes forward toward the eyes almost as steeply as backward (fig. 412). The web (fig. 413) is horizontal or inclined, with a round well-defined central portion, in the middle of which is sometimes a round opaque screen that nearly covers the spider. In the finished web there is usually no trace of the temporary spiral, but sometimes, as in the figure, a little of it is left, showing how it starts abruptly from the closer spirals that form the center of the web. The outer spirals are very fine and close together and the number of rays unusually large, sometimes as many as sixty.

$Epeira placida.$--This is a small spider, about a fifth of an inch long, with the longest legs about a quarter of an inch. The cephalothorax is high in the middle where it rests against the abdomen very much as it is in gibberosa (fig. 412). The abdomen is oval, and widest behind. The legs are comparatively short and tapering, and the femora thick. The cephalothorax is brownish yellow, with three brown stripes. The legs are the same color, a little darker at the ends of the joints. The abdomen has a middle brown stripe, narrow in front and widening to the middle, from which it extends to the spinnerets, keeping about the same width, with a row of black spots on the edge at each side and a pair of white spots in the middle (fig. 414). The sides of the abdomen are white or yellow, and underneath it is brown, with two white stripes in the middle and four white spots around the spinnerets. The male is marked like the female and has no peculiar modifications of the legs. This spider matures early, sometimes before the first of June in Massachusetts, and half-grown young are found in the autumn. The web is like that of gibberosa, with a large, round, and close inner spiral from which, in the unfinished web, the temporary spiral starts abruptly. The web is made in low bushes and may be vertical or inclined.

$Epeira scutulata.$--A light yellow spider, a sixth to a fifth of an inch long, with the abdomen angular behind and at the sides and as wide as long (fig. 415). The cephalothorax is half as wide in front as it is behind, and the lateral eyes are as far from the middle eyes as they are from each other. The front legs are a fourth longer than the second. The general color is light yellow, the legs darker at the ends of the joints, with long black spines. The head has a few brown or red marks behind the eyes and back to the dorsal groove, but these are often entirely absent. The abdomen is lighter across the front between the two corners, and there is sometimes a distinct white transverse stripe. In front of each corner is a black spot, and there is generally a row of small black spots around the front of the abdomen, and two rows behind converging toward the spinnerets. In the hinder rows of spots the middle pair are generally longest, and sometimes these are the only pair present. The under side has no distinct markings. The epigynum is dark at the sides, and the finger is short and flat at the end and turned a little outward. The male has the legs longer, and the cephalothorax wider behind. The abdomen is not much larger than the cephalothorax and less angular than in the female. The colors are the same as in the female, some individuals being light and some dark.

$Epeira parvula.$--A common spider all over the country, with the abdomen wide in front and bluntly pointed behind, gray and brown colors and a great variety of markings. The length is quarter to three-eighths of an inch, with the abdomen two-thirds as long and as wide across the front. The abdomen is as high behind as it is in front, and the pointed end is sometimes turned a little upward, as it is in conica. The front of the head is narrow, not more than half as wide as the back of the thorax. The front legs are half longer than the body. The cephalothorax is gray, darker at the sides, and sometimes with a few black spots. The legs are irregularly marked with rings and spots, and the femora are dark toward the end. The abdomen is commonly gray, with a tapering scalloped middle stripe and a distinct dark middle spot and two large light spots at the front end (fig. 416). Sometimes there is a middle narrow dark stripe the whole length of the abdomen (fig. 418), and sometimes all the middle is white or light yellow. The males have the head a little narrower and more pointed, the legs longer, and the second tibia slightly thickened, but not curved. The webs are in low bushes.

$Epeira stellata.$--A brown spider, a quarter to a third of an inch long and nearly as broad, with pointed humps around the abdomen. The cephalothorax is wide in front, and the lateral eyes are on the outer sharp corners. The legs are short and usually drawn up and partly concealed under the abdomen. The abdomen has a sharp point in front that extends over the cephalothorax as far as the base of the first legs, and a large point behind, with a smaller one under it. At the sides are five pairs of points, and over the first of these another pair a little higher on the back. The cephalothorax is brown, lighter in the middle and darker at the sides, and covered with short gray hairs. The abdomen is marked with lighter and darker spots of brown, the front part generally dark with a very light middle spot, and the hinder half showing traces of the usual middle stripe of Epeira. The legs have dark rings at the ends and middle of the joints. It lives among low bushes a foot or two from the ground all over the country. This spider, as well as several other species, often leaves a web unfinished with the inner spiral still covering a large part of it, as in fig. 420.

$Epeira verrucosa.$--Common in the South and as far north as Long Island, N.Y. The body is about a quarter of an inch long. The abdomen is narrow behind but not pointed, and in front nearly as wide as long. The middle is nearly covered by a triangular light spot,--white, yellow, or pink in different spiders,--surrounded by a darker color of various shades of brown or gray. The cephalothorax is yellow or light gray, with sometimes some darker spots in the middle. The legs are colored like the thorax, with darker rings at the ends of the joints and in the middle of the first and second femora. The spines are slender and colored like the hairs. The abdomen has a prominent tubercle behind, at the end of the light spot, and under it in the middle line two others. At the sides near the posterior end are two pairs of tubercles, and sometimes two other pairs farther forward, and two at the corners of the light spot. The colors of the under side are as variable as those above,--sometimes light without distinct markings, and sometimes almost black at the sides, on the sternum, and around the spinnerets. The epigynum (fig. 422) has a slender pointed finger reaching halfway to the spinnerets.

The male (fig. 423) has the head narrower than the female, and the abdomen as small as the cephalothorax. The legs are longer and more slender, with the metatarsus of the second pair curved inward, and a long forked spine on the inside of the tibia of the same legs.

$Larinia directa.$--This resembles a much elongated Epeira pratensis (p. 167). It is about as long as pratensis, a quarter to a third of an inch, but very slender,--not much more than a quarter as wide as long (fig. 425). The general color is yellowish but pale and translucent, marked with very distinct black spots. The spots are usually in six pairs on the abdomen, sometimes so small as to be hardly visible, sometimes so large as to be the most distinct part of the spider. In some individuals there is a row of black spots on the upper side of each leg, so that when these are drawn up over the back hardly anything is visible except the spots. In some individuals the first and third pairs of spots on the abdomen are very large and the others very small (fig. 426). The sternum is nearly twice as long as wide, with the sides of the front half parallel. It is darker at the sides. On the under side of the abdomen are two parallel dark stripes. In the male (fig. 424) the front legs are nearly three times the length of the body, but neither the first nor the second pair is curved or thickened. It is found in South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama.

$Cyclosa conica$ or $caudata.$--This spider may be known by the blunt conical hump at the hinder end of the abdomen, extending upward and backward over the spinnerets (figs. 428, 429). Full-grown females are about quarter of an inch long. The color is a mixture of gray and white, different individuals varying from almost white to almost black. The cephalothorax is longer than wide, the front part narrow, and the top of the front of the head extended forward beyond the base of the mandibles. The hump on the abdomen varies considerably in size, and is generally about half as long as the rest of the abdomen and slopes gradually into it. In light individuals the markings of the abdomen are obscure, but usually there is a distinct dark middle stripe, widest near the base of the hump. The under side is black, with a pair of very distinct light spots across the middle. The cephalothorax is dark gray or black without stripes, sometimes a little lighter around the eyes. The legs are white, with dark rings at the end of each joint and in the middle of each except the femora. On the first and second femora the dark rings are very wide, covering sometimes more than half the joint. The males have the cephalothorax darker and narrower in front, and the abdomen smaller, with only a slight hump. The spider seems to live all the time in the web. The inner spiral is large and widens gradually from the center outward. There is usually a line of silk across the web, in which are fastened parts of dead insects and other rubbish and, in the middle of the summer, the cocoons of eggs. The spider, standing in the middle of this band where it crosses the center of the web, looks like part of the rubbish. When an old web is torn down this band of rubbish is left in place, and the new web made across it. A peculiarity of the web of this spider is that the inner spiral has one, and sometimes two, loops in it, making it wider than it is high (fig. 430).

THE THREE SPECIES OF THE GENUS ZILLA

We have three species of Zilla, the females of which are so much alike that it is almost impossible to tell them apart. The males also resemble each other closely except in their palpi, which are distinctly different in the different species. They are of moderate size, the largest about three-eighths of an inch long, and in general appearance resemble the genus Steatoda of the Therididæ (p. 119). The abdomen is large and oval and a little flattened. The legs are slender and of moderate length, like those of Epeira. The head is rounded in front, and the lateral eyes are not separated farther from the middle pairs than they are from each other. The mandibles are large and thickened in the middle toward the front. The epigynum and the spinnerets are both small. The color of all the species is gray, with sometimes a little yellow or pink in the lighter parts. The cephalothorax has usually, but not always, a dark border at the sides and a middle dark line that widens and becomes lighter toward the eyes. The abdomen has a wide middle stripe like Epeira, scalloped at the sides and crossed at the hinder end by two or three pairs of transverse spots. In front it is almost white or tinted with pink or yellow, and narrows almost to a point, with a much darker spot each side. The sides of the abdomen are marked with oblique dark marks that extend underneath. The sternum has a light middle stripe. Under the abdomen is a dark middle stripe, with light each side of it. The legs are pale, with narrow gray rings at the end and middle of each joint. These three species seem to be the same as three found in Europe,--Z. atrica, Z. x-notata, and Z. montana. Atrica is found at Ipswich and Salem on the coast of Massachusetts, x-notata at Woods Hole on the south coast of Massachusetts, and montana in the White Mountains and Adirondacks. Wherever found they are in large numbers, atrica and x-notata living on the outside of houses, and montana in trees and rocks. The webs of Zilla (fig. 432) have a segment left without cross threads, sometimes for its whole length, and sometimes only the part of it nearest the center. Opposite this open segment a thread leads from the center of the web to the nest (fig. 433), which is a tube of silk open at both ends.

The differences between the palpi of the males are very plain. In atrica the palpi (fig. 434) are as long as the whole body, with the femur and tibia both slightly curved and the tarsus and palpal organ small and like that of x-notata. In x-notata (fig. 435) the palpus is as long as the cephalothorax, and the tarsus and palpal organ small and round. The front legs are a fourth longer than in atrica. In montana (fig. 435a) the palpus is still shorter, the tibia thicker, and the tarsus and palpal organ larger. There is little difference in the shape of the epigynum of the different species, but that of montana is twice as large as that of x-notata or atrica.

$Singa pratensis.$--The Singas are small Epeiridæ a sixth or fifth of an inch long, with smooth bodies and bright colors. They live among grass and other small plants in low open ground. When full grown the females of S. pratensis are a fifth of an inch long, with the abdomen oval and marked with a double white stripe in the middle and a single one on each side. The cephalothorax is yellow, with a little black between the middle eyes not extending to the lateral pairs. The legs are yellow, without rings or other markings. The abdomen is yellow brown, darker toward the hinder end, with white or light yellow stripes. The under side is the same yellow-brown color, darker in the middle, with two narrow, curved, light lines from the spiracles to the spinnerets. The males are marked in the same way and have a smaller abdomen and longer spines on the legs.

$Singa variabilis.$--This is a little smaller than pratensis, usually about a sixth of an inch long. The legs and cephalothorax are bright orange color. The front of the head between the eyes is black. The abdomen is usually entirely black, but occasionally has bright yellow markings (fig. 436) arranged somewhat as in pratensis. Sometimes there is a wide middle stripe, with narrower ones at the sides and two underneath. Sometimes there are only the two lateral stripes, and there are all variations between these markings. The males are colored in the same way and have the same varieties. They are smaller than the males of pratensis, but have the palpal organs as large or larger.

THE GENUS ACROSOMA

These are small spiders, with the abdomen extended back half its length beyond the spinnerets, brightly colored, flattened above, and furnished with several pairs of pointed processes. The cephalothorax is longer than in Epeira and Argiope and widest in the middle. The legs are slender and have only fine and soft hairs. The webs (fig. 437) are inclined and have a hole in the middle surrounded by several turns of smooth thread; when hanging in it the spiders look like burrs or seeds. At a slight alarm they will sometimes drop to the ground and hide under the nearest shelter.

$Acrosoma mitrata.$--This is a smaller species than rugosa or spinea. The abdomen does not extend as far backward as in the other species, but comes farther forward so as to cover half the cephalothorax (fig. 438). The abdomen is truncated behind, with two pairs of pointed processes at the corners, one pair below the other. In front, the abdomen is a little narrowed over the thorax. The legs and cephalothorax are brown, as in the other species. The abdomen is light yellow, darker behind, with two or three pairs of black spots along the middle and five or six dark elongated spots along the sides. The under side is black mixed with yellow spots, as in the other species. Common as far north as Connecticut.

$Acrosoma rugosa.$--This has five pairs of spines on the abdomen, three pairs in the same places as those of spinea and the other two pairs behind and under the last of the three. All the humps and spines are about the same size. The cephalothorax and legs resemble those of spinea, but the legs are shorter. The colors are white, yellow, and brown in spots and marks like those of spinea, some individuals being almost white, and others as nearly black. The males have a long slender abdomen without humps or spines. This is a common spider as far north as Connecticut, where it is occasionally found.

$Acrosoma spinea.$--This spider is distinguished from all the common species by the shape of its abdomen, which is narrow in front and has two long spreading points behind (fig. 440). There is a pair of smaller spines on the front of the abdomen and another near the middle of each side. The middle of the abdomen is white or bright yellow. The spines are black at the points and bright red at the base. There are several black spots on the back, and gray marks at the sides. The under side of the abdomen is darker than it is above and marked with black and yellow spots. The cephalothorax and legs are light brown, the thorax with lighter edges. The young have the abdomen longer, with the posterior spines short and blunt. The third and fourth legs are whitish, with dark longitudinal stripes. The males are smaller than the females and resemble the young. The abdomen is a little widened behind and has in place of the spines three pairs of low bumps. The front legs are dark, and the hinder legs light, as in the young. The web (fig. 437) has a hole in the middle, across which the spider hangs.

$Meta menardi.$--This spider lives in caves and similar cool and shady places in various parts of this country and also in Europe. In general appearance, especially when young, it reminds one of Linyphia. The abdomen is longer than wide, high in front, and tapering a little behind (fig. 445). The eyes are near together, the lateral eyes almost as near the middle pairs as they are to each other. The mandibles are long, thickened in front near the base, and slightly turned outward at the ends and strongly toothed on the inner side about the claw. The maxillæ are also long and a little widened at the ends. The dorsal groove is very deep. The legs are long, the front pair twice the length of the body. The full-grown female is half an inch in length, the male a third shorter, but with legs nearly as long. The general color is gray, the lighter parts translucent and yellowish. The cephalothorax has three gray stripes, more distinct in the young, a middle stripe from the eyes to the dorsal groove, and one on each side of the thorax. In the young (fig. 444) the markings of the abdomen are two large dark spots near the front end and several other pairs, becoming smaller toward the hinder end. In adults these markings unite into a middle stripe more like Epeira, with a light middle spot in front and several middle spots and pairs of spots diminishing backward. The legs have gray rings at the ends and middle of the joints. The webs are horizontal or inclined, according to the shape of the rocks on which they are built. They resemble the webs of Tetragnatha, having a small central spiral with a round hole in the middle, across which the spider holds herself. This spider matures late in the autumn or early in the summer, and makes large, loose, and transparent cocoons, hung near the webs.

$Argyroepeira hortorum.$--This is a green and silver-white spider, with slender legs and a long abdomen resembling Tetragnatha. The body of the female is about a quarter of an inch long, the abdomen twice as long as wide, and blunt at both ends (fig. 447). The first pair of legs are twice as long as the body, the second a fourth shorter (fig. 446). The legs are bright green, darker toward the ends. The cephalothorax is green, with a darker stripe in the middle and one on each side. The upper part of the abdomen is silver white, with a dark line through the middle, giving off four pairs of branches at the sides. At the sides of the abdomen are yellow stripes extending downward, and toward the hinder end two bright copper-red spots. The colors of the under side are as bright as those above and are more plainly seen as the spider hangs in its web. The basal joints of the legs are light in color, and the sternum and mouth parts dark. The abdomen is green, darker from front to back, where it is almost black around the spinnerets. In the middle is a large double spot of bright copper red, and the red spots at the end of the body show as plainly from below as from above, and around the middle spot are several small spots of bright yellow. The hairs and spines of the legs are so fine that they do not much affect the general color. On the front side of the femur of the fourth leg there is a fringe of long hairs extending half its length. The males are half as large as the females, with longer and more slender legs and palpi, and the same colors. The webs are nearly horizontal, with a small hole in the center, and under the round web is often a large irregular web. The round web may be a foot in diameter, or it may be so small as hardly to cover the spider. The webs have a large number of rays, and the spirals are very close together, as in the webs of Epeira gibberosa (fig. 413). The smooth central part of the web is circular and very regularly woven, showing usually no trace of the beginning of the temporary spirals, and between it and the sticky circles there is a wide space in which is nothing but the bare rays.

$Argiope riparia.$--This and the next species are among the largest and most conspicuous of the round-web spiders. It lives among grass and low bushes in open fields and meadows, especially along the borders of ponds and ditches. It matures in the northern states about the first of August. Large females are nearly an inch long, with the front legs longer than the body (fig. 449). The cephalothorax is nearly as wide as long and covered with silvery white hairs, except around the eyes. The front legs are entirely black, and the others are black, except the femora, which are light red or yellow. The abdomen is oval, a little pointed behind and square in front, with two small humps at the corners. There is a black stripe in the middle of the abdomen, narrowed between the humps and widened in the middle, where it includes two pairs of yellow spots. Along the sides are two bright yellow bands or rows of irregular spots. The color underneath is black, with a yellow stripe on the sternum and two wide yellow stripes on the abdomen, with small yellow spots between and at the sides. The young differ considerably from the adults. Until nearly full grown the legs are distinctly marked with dark rings on the ends and middle of each joint. When very young the abdomen is slender, the color is pale, and the markings gray, without the strong black and yellow of the adult. The male (fig. 450) is only a fourth as long as the female, similarly colored, but with the markings less distinct and the palpi very large. In the middle of the summer they live near the webs of the females, where they make small and imperfect webs of their own (fig. 452). The females make webs, sometimes two feet in diameter, with a zigzag band (fig. 448) of white silk up and down across the middle, and a round thick spot where the spider stands. The inner spiral of these webs is very large, covering a quarter of their diameter (fig. 452). The outer spiral comes very near it, but the spider sometimes passes through the narrow space between them from one side of the web to the other. The web is usually a little inclined, and on one or both sides sometimes has a screen of irregular threads two or three inches distant from it (fig. 453), but these are often absent. These spiders have no nest and stand all the time in the center of the web (fig. 448). Sometimes the spider draws away the grass and leaves so as to make an oval opening large enough for the web (fig. 453). In September the eggs are laid in large pear-shaped cocoons with a brown paper-like surface, hung by threads among the grass and bushes (fig. 454). The young hatch during the winter and remain in the cocoon until May. The adult spiders disappear in October and probably all die before winter.