ARACHNIDA.
Asagena phalerata at Grasmere.—It may interest your readers to hear of a recent capture of Asagena phalerata. This spider is certainly not common in the North-west of England; it was recorded by Blackwall as rare in Denbighshire, and by Mr. Cambridge as rare in Dorset. I found a mature male on Aug. 3rd or 4th, at the top of Redbank, above Grasmere. Its habitat is said to be amongst heather and stones, but this specimen was in a patch of grass beneath a rock, and close to a tiny fine sheet of web. The grass was glistening with dew in the early morning sun, and several of these small snares sparkling with specks of moisture attracted my attention, but the spiders were easily lost in the herbage, and only one rewarded my search. The species is a very distinct one, and seen upon the ground might be mistaken for a small beetle at a hasty glance. The length is just three-sixteenths of an inch. The cephalo-thorax is a dark red-brown colour, broad behind, and quite narrow at the caput; it is slightly overhung by the flattened oval abdomen. This is a very deep black-brown, somewhat glossy; on the fore part is a narrow yellowish white crescent mark, and half-way between this and the spinners on either side is a short vivid white line, slightly curving back, and in the centre just above the spinners is a longer bisected white line. The legs are short and strong, of the same colour as the cephalo-thorax, and are ringed with black at most of the joints. The palpi are short and thick, and the palpal organ a complicated knob.—Henry W. Freston (Kersal, Manchester).
Epeira diadema Courtship.—On Sept. 5th I made a close observation of the courtship of a fine pair of Epeira diadema. Some days ago the female spun a large web in a corner by my front door here, and on two mornings I had watched the efforts of a male to wiu her good graces. She fiercely repelled, however, all his advances. But on the morning of the 5th her humour had changed. A male crept down the wall until he reached a radius of the web. He cautiously advanced along this while she hung motionless in the centre of the web. When he reached the orbicular lines he vibrated the web with his fore legs, and also waved these up and down several times; he then went back to the wall. This he repeated several times, till the female set off slowly towards him. He waited on the line by the wall till she came to the edge of the snare and poised herself upon the line on which he had travelled; she seemed to hang down attached by all her feet to the line. He then carefully approached on the upper side of the line, waving his fore legs slowly up and down; then he backed away, then advanced, always coming nearer at each repetition. At last he was actually waving his legs over her head, and still she did not move. It seemed as if he wished to mesmerize her. He ran back to the
