A HISTORY OF KENT siderably in colour, found abundantly in greenhouses and also amongst shrubs in the open garden. This species makes no tent- like retreat, but sits close to the one or more pale rounded egg-sacs usually spun up against a beam or window-sill. 1 06. Theridion dent'iculatum (Walckenaer). Tunbridge Wells (T. R. R. S.). Also a very small and abundant species, occurring on the outside of windows and outhouses and also on walls and palings. It makes no tent-like retreat and the habits are very similar to those of the last species. 107. Theridion sisyphium (Clerck). Gravesend (F. P. S.) ; Tunbridge Wells (T. R. R. S.). Very common on gorse and holly bushes, where they construct a tent-like domicile and spin up within its shelter the small greenish egg-sacs. The young when hatched pass also their earlier days within the tent, but on the death of the mother spider they scatter, taking up positions for themselves amongst the neighbouring foliage. Known also as T, nervosum, Blackwall. 108. Theridion pictum (Walckenaer). Hurst Wood (T. R. R. S.). A very beautiful species, resembling a large example of T. varians with a bright red and white dentated band on the dorsal side of the abdomen, found, often abundantly, on holly and other bushes, where they construct a large and very perfectly formed thimble- shaped domicile, covered with dry chips of leaves and twigs, often decorated with the wings, legs, wing-cases and other debris of the victims which have served them for food. 109. Theridion vittatum, C. L. Koch. Hurst Wood (T. R. R. S.). Not uncommon on palings under trees or amongst herbage in woods. Known also as T. pulchellum. no. Theridion himaculatum (Linnasus). Gravesend (F.P.S.) Hurst Wood (T.R.R.S.). Known also as T. carolinum, Blackwall. The males can be recognized by the sharp spur on the coxa of the fourth pair of legs. 111. Theridion ovatum (Clerck). Tunbridge Wells (T. R. R. S.) ; Gravesend (F. P. S.). A very common species. The female lives in the folded leaf of a bramble, or that of some other shrub, spinning the edges together. Within this domicile she constructs a round sea-green egg-sac about as large as a very small pea. The spider has a pale yellow abdomen with a broad pink central dorsal band or two pink bands, one on each side. Another variety has no pink bands, but a row of black spots on each side. The male and female can often be found together within their leafy domicile. This spider is also known under the name Phyllonethis lineata, and under Theridion. 112. Theridion pollens, Blackwall. Hurstwood (T.R.R.S.). This minute Theridioid, pale yellow in colour, with often a dark, or paler, dorsal spot on the abdomen, lives beneath the leaves of shrubs and trees, laurel, elm, lime, etc., where it spins its minute pear-shaped pure white egg-sac, which rests on its larger end and has several small cusps towards the sharp-pointed stalk. 113. Steatoda bipunctata (Linnasus). Tunbridge Wells (T. R. R. S.). A dark brown shiny rather flattened spider, living in chinks of walls, angles of windows and crevices in the partitions of old stables, etc., emerging usually at nightfall. The males are remarkable for their very large palpi and also for the possession of a stridulating organ, formed by a series of chitinous ridges in a hollow at the anterior part of the abdo- men, which move over some cusps on the conical posterior of the carapace. 114. Enoplognatha thoracica {Vlahn). Tunbridge Wells (T. R. R. S.). Known also as Neriene albipunctata, O. P.-Cambridge and Drepanodus obscurus, O. P. -Cambridge. PHOLCID^ Spiders with more or less slender bodies and very long slender legs. The eyes are situated in three groups — a group of two in the centre and a group of three on each side. The only British species we possess is a well known frequenter of houses in the southern counties, spinning an irregular web and moving swiftly with a circular shaking motion when alarmed. 115. Pholcus phalangioides (Fuesslin). Tenterden (T. R. R. S.). 234
