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.