Part 7

$Pardosa albomaculata$ or $greenlandica.$--This species resembles _lapidicina_ (fig. 186), but is a little larger and not quite as long legged. It has longer hairs and is marked with bright white spots on a black ground. There are two rows of white spots on the abdomen, and others along the sides of the cephalothorax and on the legs (fig. 189). Wet in alcohol it shows similar irregular markings on the abdomen as _lapidicina_, but the light spots on the thorax are smaller, the middle one extending forward only to the dorsal groove. The epigynum (fig. 190) is large and distinct. Its outline has been compared to that of a decanter, narrow in front and rounded out at the sides behind. There is a long narrow middle lobe, generally widened at the end, but varying much in shape. At the front end of the epigynum are two small depressions. It resembles the epigynum of _glacialis_ (fig. 192), but is always longer and narrower and has the middle lobe straighter and more distinct. White Mountains, on bare stones. Rocky Mountains, Canada, and Greenland.

$Pardosa glacialis$ or $brunnea.$--One-third of an inch long. Color dark brown with some light markings. In the middle of the cephalothorax is a light stripe, widening and fading out toward the eyes and divided by a dark middle line, widest in front and extending back as far as the dorsal groove (fig. 191). On each side is a light stripe extending under the eyes to the front of the head. The abdomen has the middle pointed stripe light colored, and sometimes there are four or five pairs of small spots of white hairs on the hinder half. In alcohol there are obscure cross markings and black spots. The legs are marked with longitudinal dark and light lines. On the under side there is usually a light middle stripe on the front of the sternum, and the middle of the abdomen is lighter than the rest. The whole body is hairy; there are long black hairs on the front of the head, and the spines are long and colored like the legs. The epigynum (fig. 192) has a narrow middle lobe transparent at the end so that it is difficult to see, and dark brown pieces at the sides, with the outer ends turned forward. The shape can best be understood from the figure. The epigynum varies, but distinguishes this species plainly from _greenlandica_ (fig. 190), with which it is likely to be associated. The male palpi are large and black at the ends, the tarsus oval and pointed, and the tibia short and as thick as long. This spider has been found all over Canada and as far north as Greenland. It is common in the White Mountains and has been found as far south as Connecticut.

$Pardosa tachypoda$ or $montana.$--This is a Canadian and White Mountain spider found as far south as Massachusetts (fig. 193). It is smaller than either _greenlandica_ or _glacialis_ and larger than _nigropalpis_ and _albopatella_. The colors are more like the last two species, but the legs are darker and more distinctly ringed. The light markings of the cephalothorax and abdomen are less distinct and more broken and irregular. The epigynum (fig. 195) has a characteristic shape different from any of the allied species, the two anterior depressions being wide apart and the middle ridge narrow and rounded at the end. The male palpi (fig. 196) are rather slender, as in _lapidicina_, and uniformly colored, and all the differences between the sexes are less strongly marked than in _nigropalpis_ and _albopatella_.

$Pardosa pallida.$--One-fifth of an inch long and brightly marked with black and brown on a light yellow ground (figs. 197, 199). The cephalothorax is narrower than in most species. The cephalothorax has two wide gray stripes and a fine black line on the edge at each side. The abdomen has the middle pointed stripe light brown with a broken black edge. On each side is a black band, made up of spots closer toward the middle and more scattered toward the sides. The legs are light yellow, with a few black spots near the body. The spines of the legs are long but not dark colored. On the under side there are dark spots on the sternum near the base of each leg, and sometimes two rows of spots or two bands nearer the middle. On the under side of the abdomen are two black stripes, sometimes connected behind. In the males (fig. 199) the colors are darker and the dark markings larger. The ends of the palpi are large and covered with black hairs.

In one freshly molted young male there was hardly any trace of the spots on the sternum. The male palpi were dark gray with black hairs, except the tarsus, which was light colored, with a dark spot in the middle and a few black hairs. The markings of the abdomen were very indistinct, and the light color brownish, while the thorax and legs are slightly green. The first femora were black toward the end.

$Pardosa nigropalpis.$--About quarter of an inch long. Black and gray. The male with head and palpi black (fig. 203). In the female the cephalothorax has a large light middle stripe, widest between the eyes and the dorsal groove, and a narrow light stripe on each side (fig. 202). The abdomen is light in the middle for its whole length in an irregular stripe partly divided by faint cross lines of gray. The sides are darker and spotted with black. The legs are faintly marked with darker rings. In the male the contrast between the light and dark markings is greater, the markings of the cephalothorax are smaller and brighter, and the head and palpi are black and covered with black hairs.

$Pardosa albopatella.$--Smaller than _P. nigropalpis_, but resembling it in shape and color (figs. 205, 206). The middle stripe of the cephalothorax is narrower. The middle stripe of the abdomen is narrower and brighter at the front end. The femora are distinctly marked with four rings, and the other joints less plainly. In the male the ends of the legs are pale, without rings, and the rings of the femora are broken into spots except on the front legs, where the femora are black. The palpi (fig. 206) have the femora black and the patella white. The tibia is dark, and the tarsus is dark at the base and white toward the tip.

$Pirata piraticus.$--A small and active spider living in short grass in summer and under leaves in winter. The colors and shape of the body are much like _Lycosa pratensis_ (fig. 168), but the legs are proportionally larger and longer, and the colors brighter. The length is about a quarter of an inch. The front and second rows of eyes are of the same length, those of the second row large and their diameter apart (fig. 209). The eyes of the upper row are nearly as large as those of the second, and twice as far apart. The color is pale yellow, with gray or black markings. The cephalothorax has a narrow light line in the middle and one on each side (fig. 208). In the middle of the front of the abdomen is a light stripe with dark edges, which tapers into a line or row of spots behind the middle. At the sides of this are light stripes that unite behind, and outside of these are dark markings becoming smaller behind. The legs have conspicuous dark spines, especially the hinder pair, and are faintly marked with rings or sometimes are without markings.

Dolomedes and Ocyale differ in many respects from the other Lycosidæ. They are more flattened, have the head lower, and the eyes all more nearly of the same size. The front row of eyes are small and near together. The upper row is about twice as long and strongly curved, and the eyes are nearly equal in size and twice as large as those of the front row (figs. 214, 216). In Dolomedes the lower eyes are about half as high as the top of the head. In Ocyale they are lower and farther apart, and the head resembles still more Tibellus of the Thomisidæ. Both Ocyale and Dolomedes resemble this family in their flattened body and wide thorax.

$Dolomedes sexpunctatus.$--Dark greenish gray or, in young spiders, yellow, with a silvery white line each side the whole length of the body, meeting in front under the eyes and reaching back to the spinnerets (fig. 210). In the middle of the cephalothorax is a narrow light line. On the hinder half of the abdomen are four pairs of small white spots, and sometimes another pair near the front end. On the under side the general color is lighter, and there are six dark spots on the sternum (fig. 211). The cephalothorax is three-quarters as wide as long, but looks narrower on account of the white stripes. The abdomen is proportionally longer than in _tenebrosus_ (fig. 213). The full-grown female is six-tenths of an inch long, with a spread of an inch and three-quarters. In winter and spring the half-grown young are very common everywhere. It lives near water and runs easily on it, each foot making a depression on the surface without becoming wet.

$Dolomedes tenebrosus.$--This is one of our largest spiders, spreading its legs over four inches. The color is light and dark gray. The legs are indistinctly marked with light and dark rings and have long dark spines (fig. 213). The thorax is dark in the middle and lighter toward the eyes. On each side are light bands that extend around under the eyes and meet in front. The abdomen has three pairs of transverse dark stripes, each with a light border on the hinder edge. The cephalothorax is four-tenths of an inch long and three-tenths wide, half as wide in front, and nearly straight on the front edge. It is rounded in the middle, but not very high, and just behind the eyes is nearly flat. The under side of the thorax and legs is light colored, without markings, the abdomen a little darker. The abdomen is as long as the thorax, widest across the middle, and a little pointed behind. The male has longer legs and is more slender and strongly marked; under the fourth femora near the end is a bunch of stiff hairs. The male palpi are long, with large tarsi and palpal organs and a long hook on the outer side of the tarsus. They live near water, on the ground or low bushes. The female carries her cocoon in her mandibles and makes a large bunch of silk in the bushes, in which the young live for some time after hatching.

$Ocyale undata.$--When full grown over half an inch long, the thorax quarter of an inch, and the first and fourth legs an inch long. The thorax is almost as wide as long, and the head not much more than half as wide (fig. 215). The abdomen is long and narrower than the thorax and a little pointed behind. The color is a light brownish yellow, with a wide darker and browner band on the middle of both thorax and abdomen. This band is bordered by a white line a little curved in and out toward the tail. In younger spiders the color is lighter and yellower; the middle stripe has the edges more undulating, and in very young ones it is serrated or even broken up into spots. The legs, which are plain in adults, are sometimes marked with rings in the young. The front end of the stripe is sometimes divided into two. These spiders live on bushes, without any web, until they have young. In the latter part of summer the females carry their flat cocoons under them, holding on with the mandibles. When the young are about to hatch the female builds a mass of web (fig. 217) three or four inches through, in which she leaves the cocoon, and the young come out and live for a time together in the web.

$Oxyopes salticus.$--The eyes are in three rows, the front one of two small eyes, the second of four eyes, and the upper of two. The head is wide and less separated from the thorax than in Lycosa and very high in front. The cephalothorax is two-thirds as wide as long and rounded both in front and behind (fig. 218). The abdomen of the male is smaller than the cephalothorax, but that of the female is wider and longer. It is widest in the middle, rounded in front, and pointed behind. The legs are slender, the first pair longest, but all nearly of the same length and with very long spines. The colors and markings are very variable. The legs are white or pale yellow, with black spines. The light parts of the body are the same color, with brown and black markings. There are usually four brown stripes on the cephalothorax from the eyes backward, and two black lines in front from the lower eyes down the front of the mandibles (fig. 219). The most constant mark of the abdomen is a pointed middle spot extending as far as the middle of the back. This is generally surrounded by light color, and at the sides are narrow oblique brown marks. There are sometimes fine black lines on the under sides of the femora and a wide black middle stripe under the abdomen. The males are sometimes colored like the female, and vary from this to black abdomen and palpi, with the rest of the body pale. A very common species in the southern states in the early summer, running on low bushes. There is another Oxyopes about the same size that has been found a few times as far north as New England.

$Oxyopes (Peucetia) viridans.$--This is a common and conspicuous spider in the South. It is a bright transparent green, with red spots and black spines. It grows to a length of three-quarters of an inch, but is found in great numbers early in the summer, when it is only a quarter of this size (fig. 220). The head is narrower than in _O. salticus_, and the lateral eyes so high that they appear to belong to the upper rather than the middle row. The abdomen is the same width as the back part of the cephalothorax and tapers a little toward the spinnerets. The first pair of legs is longest and the second next. The general color is green, with the space between the eyes red, red spots and black spines on the legs, and two rows of red spots on the abdomen, sometimes united into a stripe, with pairs of white spots surrounded by red.

THE AGALENIDÆ

The larger Agalenidæ are the makers of the flat wide cobwebs that are so common on the grass and in the corners of barns and cellars. They resemble some of the Drassidæ, especially Agrœca and Anyphæna (pp. 1-14). The head is large and marked off by shallow grooves from the thorax, and is often contracted behind the eyes, so that it is narrower there than in the front. The mandibles are large and, in the females, much swelled at the base in front. The arrangement of the eyes differs little from that in the Drassidæ. The upper spinnerets are longer than the others and have the terminal joint narrowed toward the end, with the spinning tubes on the inner side. The feet have three claws, like the Lycosidæ, and do not have the brush of hairs common in the Drassidæ. The males and females differ little in size, but the males have longer legs and smaller abdomen and large and complicated palpi.

$Agalena nævia.$--This spider is known everywhere by its web, which it makes on grass, among stones and weeds, and in houses (figs. 221, 222). It varies greatly in size and color. Large females may be three-quarters of an inch long, with legs measuring an inch and a quarter, while others may be full grown at half that size. In color some are pale yellow with gray markings, and others reddish brown with the markings almost black. Whatever the color, they are thickly covered with fine gray hairs. The cephalothorax has two longitudinal gray stripes and a black line along the edge on each side (fig. 223). The head is high and a little darker in front. Both rows of eyes are strongly curved, with the middle eyes highest, so that the middle eyes of the lower row and the lateral of the upper row form a nearly straight line (fig. 224). The mandibles are stout, not much swelled in front, and covered with hair. The abdomen is gray or black at the sides and lighter brown in the middle, with two rows of white or light-colored spots. The upper spinnerets are more than twice as long as the others, and the terminal joint much longer than the basal. The legs are large and long, the fourth pair almost twice as long as the body. The legs are marked with dark rings at the ends of the joints and lighter rings in the middle of femur and tibia. On the under side the coxæ are light colored and the sternum dark, and there is a broad dark middle band on the abdomen from the hinder legs to the spinnerets. The males are as large as the females, with longer legs and smaller abdomen. The male palpi have a very large black tube coiled one and a half turns under the tarsus (fig. 225). The web (fig. 222) is flat and shaped according to the surrounding objects to which it is fastened, with a tube at one side in which the spider hides. The eggs are laid in August and September in a flat cocoon, attached by one side in some sheltered place and covered with silk, often mixed with dirt. Most of the adult spiders die before winter, and females are often found dead on or near their cocoons. The young hatch in the winter and leave the cocoon early in the spring, and soon begin to build their webs among the short grass. The webs become more distinct when covered with dew, but, though too transparent to be seen at other times, they remain in the same places throughout the summer and are repaired and enlarged as the spider grows. If, however, the web should be destroyed, the spider is able in one day to make a new one as large as the old, but thin and transparent. The web contains many long threads crossing it from one side to the other and nearly parallel, and these are crossed in all directions by finer threads (fig. 226). The long threads are spun from the lower spinnerets, the upper pair being held up over the back, out of the way. The fine threads are spun from the upper spinnerets, which are swung from side to side as the spider moves along. There is nothing adhesive about the web. It serves merely as a clearing where insects may alight to rest and the spider may have a good chance to run after them. Where the web is made under plants or rocks a great number of threads are carried upward from it, which may help in stopping insects (fig. 227), as they do in the webs of Linyphia. (See p. 135.)

$Tegenaria derhamii.$--This is a common species in barns and cellars, and has probably been imported from Europe, where it is even more common. The head is high and wide, as in _T. medicinalis_. The mandibles are less swelled in front and the eyes are closer together than in that species, and cover more than half the width of the head (fig. 229). The cephalothorax is shorter and wider across the hinder half and the abdomen shorter than in _medicinalis_, and the legs are longer and more hairy. The colors are lighter and the hairs of the whole body longer. The female is two-fifths of an inch long. The cephalothorax is pale, with two gray stripes. The abdomen is marked with a series of gray spots, formed of a middle row more or less connected with two side rows; the front of the abdomen often pale, with the markings faint (fig. 228). The legs are long, the first and fourth pairs nearly twice the length of the body. They are marked with faint gray rings at the ends and two in the middle of each joint. The palpi are long and slender in both sexes, and those of the male have the patella and tibia of about the same length and each nearly twice as long as wide. There are no processes on the patella, but two small teeth on the tibia near its end. The tarsus is small and narrow, not as long as the patella and tibia.

The webs are made in all parts of cellars and unswept buildings, sometimes forming a shelf in the corner, not as large or as flat as those of _A. nævia_, but with a similar tube on the most sheltered side (fig. 230) The webs more often spread under beams and floors fastened up by threads at the sides and edges, and, as they gather dust, hang down by its weight and become torn and tangled. Old webs are repaired and extended until they become as thick as cloth with silk and dirt. The tube is generally smaller and less funnel shaped where it enters the web than that of Agalena. The web is not as flat as that of Agalena, curving usually down from the tube and up in front of it, often turning up abruptly at the edge. Sometimes it is fastened up in the middle of the front edge and curves downward each side (fig. 232).

Fig. 231 shows a web of the most common form in the corner of a cellar, with the spider standing at the mouth of the tube, and the remains of egg cocoons hung up at the left. This web was at least a year old, and the front edge had just been extended with clear and transparent silk, while the middle was black with coal dust.

Fig. 232 is another web in the same cellar, with the front edge fastened up to the boards above. It is drawn tightest in the middle and curves down on each side.