The Tetragnathas are slender, usually straw-colored spiders, living in their webs among the long grass in meadows and near water. The legs are slender, the cephalothorax narrow, and the abdomen long and cylindrical. The mandibles are large in both sexes, and in the males are very long and furnished with long teeth at the end and along the inner margin. When pairing, the male and female hold each other by the ends of the mandibles. The eyes are in two rows nearly equal and parallel, and the distance between the lateral pairs varies in different species. The palpi are long and slender in both sexes, and in the males their proportions differ according to the species. The legs are also long and slender, and vary in length from _grallator_, where the female has the first legs ten times as long as the cephalothorax, to _laboriosa_, in which they are seven times as long. The webs are generally inclined and may be nearly horizontal or nearly vertical, according to the place where they are made (fig. 459). The inner spiral is small and has a hole in the middle (fig. 460). The spider stands in the web with the legs extended forward and backward close to each other, except at the ends, where they are turned outward (fig. 459). On account of their similar size and color, the species look at first sight much alike, but there are differences in the arrangement of the lateral eyes and the length of the legs, palpi, and mandibles. $Tetragnatha grallator.$--This spider grows to be half an inch long, with the first legs an inch and a half. The mandibles of the female are as long as the cephalothorax, and those of the male longer (figs. 461, 465). In both sexes they are inclined forward, so as to be nearly horizontal and spread apart at the ends. The lateral eyes are near together, so that they almost touch, and the upper row when seen from above is nearly straight. The palpi of both sexes are over one and a half times as long as the cephalothorax, and in the males sometimes twice as long (fig. 465). The patella and tibia together are nearly as long as the femur. The color is sometimes light yellow, but often gray, with a broken middle stripe of darker gray on the abdomen, and three stripes on the cephalothorax. The abdomen is generally enlarged a little in the front third (fig. 461). The males are smaller and more slender than the females, with longer legs and mandibles. [Illustration: FIG. 459. Web of Tetragnatha in tansy plants, showing the spider in its usual position.]