THE ATTID^ 



47 



reflections. The abdomen is covered with bright red shiny- 

 scales mixed with fine black hairs. It is lighter in front and 

 at the sides, and in the middle shows indis- 

 tinctly through the scales dark markings like 

 those of the female (fig. 129). The legs are 

 dark like the cephalothorax. 



Mr. Peckham says that when the male 

 approaches the female he lifts his abdomen 

 into an almost vertical position so that the 

 red color shows from in front. Then he 

 rises on the tips of his feet and, with the 

 front legs off the ground and pointing for- 

 ward, he dances back and 

 forth sidewise in front of 

 her, gradually drawing 

 nearer. At inter- 

 vals he stops and 

 turns his back to 

 her, then faces her 

 and dances again. 



Neon nellii. — This 

 is one of the small- 

 est spiders of the family, only a tenth 

 of an inch in length. The general 

 color is dark gray, darkest toward the head. 

 The cephalothorax is high, the highest part 

 being a little behind the middle, from which 

 it curves downward to the front eyes and 

 slopes abruptly backward (fig. 130). The 

 eyes are large and prominent, the front row 

 nearly straight and as wide as the widest part 

 of the cephalothorax. The posterior eyes 

 are nearly as large as the front middle pair and are in the 



Figs. 130, 131. Neon 

 nellii. — 131, female 

 enlarged sixteen 

 times. 130, side of 

 cephalothorax, show- 

 ing position of eyes. 



Fig. 132. Zygoballus bet- 

 tini. — Female enlarged 

 eight times. 



