XXI. — New England Spiders of the Family Thomisid^. 



By J. H. Emerton. 



Thomisidae. 



In the Thomisidm the cephalothorax and abdomen are both flat- 

 tened. The cephalothorax is about as wide as long, and the abdomen 

 is usually widest behind. The legs are turned outward and forward 

 more than downward, so that the body is carried close to the ground, 

 and some species walk moi*e readily sidewise than forward. 



The family consists of two groups or sub-families, the Tho^nisinm 

 and the Philodrominm. 



In the Thomisince the first and second pairs of legs are about 

 equal in length and much longer than the third and fourth. The feet 

 have two claws and under them a small cluster of hairs like the rest 

 of the hairs on the leg. 



In the Philodrominoe the legs are more nearly equal in length, all 

 long and slender, and the second pair usually longest. The feet 

 have two claws and under them a large cluster of long hairs, wid- 

 ened and flat at the end. 



The eyes of the Thomisidm are small and nearly of the same size 

 and have a simple arrangement in two I'ows. The maxillse are short 

 and narrow at the ends. The males usually differ considerably in 

 size and color from the females, and in some species the males are 

 very much smaller than the females. 



The Thomisidm live mostly on plants, and in winter hide in cracks 

 and under stones and bark. Their colors resemble the plants on 

 which they live, most species being marked with gray and brown like 

 bark, while those living on flowers are brightly colored, white and 

 yellow. They make no webs and no nests except a few threads to 

 hold the cocoon and conceal it by drawing together a leaf over it. 



A large part of the New England species have been described, a 

 few of them by Hentz in the Journal of the Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., 

 vol. V, but more by E. Keyserling in the Proceedings of the zool. 

 botan. gesellschaf t of Vienna and in a separate book on the " Spinnen 

 Americas, Laterigradae," published in 1880. The spiders in the Mu- 

 seum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge have been named by 

 Keyserling and among them are several of the New England species 

 which have been compared with my own specimens. 



While this paper was printing, Mr. Nathan Banks published in 

 the Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci of Philadelphia, a Catalogue of the spiders 



