J. H. JEmerton — JVeui England Attida?. 221 



or as small as a large part of the TlieridicUe. Some species live on 

 the ground and under stones and leaves but most of them on plants 

 and in open places. They make no webs excejit nests in which they 

 hide in winter, or when moulting or laying eggs. The pairing of 

 some species takes place in the nest, and the males of several of them 

 enter the nest of a young female and wait for her to mature. The 

 habits of the Attidce, especially the fighting and mating habits of 

 many species, have been described by G. W. and E. G. Peckham, in 

 the papers of the Wisconsin Nat. Hist. Society of 1889 and 1890. 



The palpi of the males are less variable than in most families. 

 They are usually stout and short with a short tibial hook and short 

 tube to the palpal organ, the end of the tube resting in a groove in 

 the end of the tarsus. The end of the tarsus is obliquely flattened 

 and covered closely with short fine hairs. 



A large number of the Amei'ican Attidai have been described. 

 Hentz described some forty species under fifty-one names. Many of 

 these are comparatively easy to identify but as with other families 

 probably a quarter of them will always remain uncertain. 



The species described by Walckenaer and Koch are even more 

 uncertain than those of Hentz. A considerable number of them are 

 very probably the same as species described here and in the papers 

 of Mr. Peckham, but the descriptions and figui'es are in most cases 

 too indefinite to be identified. 



The spiders described by Keyserling, in 1885, are, most of them, 

 in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, at Cambridge, Mass., and I 

 have examined and identified most of them. More species have 

 lately been described by G. W. Peckham and Mrs. Peckham, who 

 have made a specialty of this family, in the Transactions of the 

 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences for 1888. I have compared speci- 

 mens of these species with my own. I have also had for comparison 

 a number of European Attidfe named for me by Mr. Simon. The 

 classification of the American Attidm needs a more thorough revision 

 than can be undertaken in a paper dealing with so small a number 

 of species as the present and it will no doubt soon be done by Mr. 

 Peckham. The classification of Simon as modified by Peckham has 

 been followed as far as possible. 



The species are included in the following genera : 



Phidippus Koch. Large hairy spiders. Mandibles large and 

 strong and longer than the front of the head. Cephalothorax 

 widened across the middle. Anterior row of eyes comparatively 

 small and a little separated from one another, the lateral higher than 



