$Argyroepeira hortorum.$--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. [Illustration: FIGS. 449, 450. Argiope riparia.--449, female. 450, male enlarged twice.] [Illustration: FIG. 451. Middle of web of Argiope riparia, natural size. The large inner spiral ends at _b_ and the outer spiral at _a_. At _c_, _c_, are thickened spots on the rays where the inner spiral was attached while the web was making.] [Illustration: FIG. 452. Rudimentary web of male Argiope riparia of the natural size. Part of the web of the female at the left shows the difference between the webs of the two sexes.]