42O 



ARACHNIDA ARANEAE 



CHAP. 



glowing with vivid colours and metallic hues, and they have fre- 

 quently excited the admiration of travellers. The coloration is 

 nearly always due to the hairs and scales with which the spiders 

 are clothed, and is, unfortunately, almost incapable of preservation 

 in the collector's cabinet. 



These spiders are all wanderers, spinning no snares, though 

 they form a sort of silken cell or retreat, in which the female 

 lays her eggs. Their habits are diurnal, and they delight in 

 sunshine. They stalk their prey and leap upon it with wonder- 

 ful accuracy. They invariably attach a thread at intervals in 

 their course, and on the rare occasions when they miss their aim 

 while hunting on a perpendicular surface, they are saved from a 

 fall by the silken line proceeding from the spot whence the leap 

 was made. 



The movements of these spiders are sufficient to indicate their 

 systematic position without entering upon structural details, but 



their eyes deserve a special 

 mention. They are all 

 dark - coloured and very 

 unequal in size, and they 

 occupy the whole area of 

 the caput, usually forming 

 a large quadrilateral figure. 

 Four large eyes occupy the 

 facies or " forehead," the 

 medians being especially 

 large. Next come two 

 very small eyes, behind 

 the anterior laterals, and 

 lastly two of medium size 

 at the posterior corners of 

 the caput. 



This vast family does 

 not lend itself easily to 

 division into sub-families, 

 and it will be impos- 

 sible here to do more 

 than indicate a very few of the multitudinous forms. 



The most familiar British example is Salticus scenicus (Epi- 

 blemum scenicum}, the little black and white striped spider to be 



FIG. 215 . Attid Spiders. A, Salting scenicus, $ ; 

 B, Marpissa muscosa, ? ; C, Synemosyna for- 

 mica, 9 ; D, Ballus variegatus, ? . 



