664 



DIFFEKENCE OF SEXES. 



The colour is quite different in the two sexes. The female is rather prettily marked 

 with brownish chocolate upon a ground colour of reddish yellow, while the male is deep 

 black-brown, with a curious scribbled pattern of a paler hue along the back. The specific 

 name of " dispar," or unlike, is given to the spider on account of this dissimilarity. It is 

 worthy of notice, however, that in the immature state the colours are alike in both sexes. 

 The reader will doubtlessly remember that this is the case with many birds, and that even 

 when the adult male glows with all the hues of the rainbow and the adult female wears a 

 mere dress of sober brown, black, and grey, the young birds are so similar in their plumage 

 that it is hardly possible to distinguish one sex from another. 



In the species represented at fig. D the two sexes are coloured in nearly the same 

 manner, and the male is chiefly to be distinguished from his mate by the smaller 

 extremities of the palpi 



Our last example of this genus, drawn at fig. E, is a small but rather pretty species, 

 in which the male is rather smaller and slightly darker than the female. The cocoon of 





A PMW&rmus dispar. (Male.) B. Sparaenu maragdul'us. C. Philddromus dispar. (Female.) 



D. Philddromus oblongiis. E. PhiUdnmus pdllidus. 



this species is slightly made, and white in colour, and contains a large number of little 

 spherical eggs, not adhering to each other. The colour is pale greyish brown, profusely 

 speckled with tiny black dots, and marked in a very peculiar manner with dark chocolate- 

 brown. On the upper part of the cephalothorax there is a large and nearly triangular 

 patch of this colour, with a point directed towards the tail, and around it are arranged 

 several short streaks all converging towards its point. At the end of the abdomen a 

 number of similar stripes are drawn, but without the triangular patch. 



At fig. B is given a specimen belonging to another genus, and being a certainly 

 remarkable insect. The sexes are wonderfully dissimilar, but instead of one sex being 

 brilliantly coloured, and the other only tinted with dull hues, as is mostly the case, both 

 sexes are equally beautiful, though with boldly contrasting colours. This difference of 

 hue is only in the adult spider, as, when immature, the male and female are coloured alike. 



