No. 1.] SEXUAL SELECTION IN SPIDERS. 31 



out and gradually coming to a point on each side, so that the 

 face looks, from in front, very much swollen and enlarged. 

 This surface, in both sexes, is covered with bright scales which 

 are somewhat rosy in tint, and the points at the sides are furn- 

 ished with some stout dark hairs. 



In examining the upper part of the face, just above or be- 

 low the first row of eyes, a number of interesting featui'es may 

 be observed. In one section of the sub-family Lyssomanx most 

 of the species have, for the general color of the body, a tender 

 grass green. In this group the clypeus and the region around 

 the first row of eyes is nearly always adorned with a covering 

 of red hairs, which are sometimes dull, sometimes very bright; 

 this ornamentation is not usually confined to one sex, but in L. 

 amazonicus the red is perceptibly brighter in the male, while 

 though in Asamonea puella the eye-region of the female shows 

 no red hairs, the male has the forehead covered in the middle 

 by thick, silvery white, and on the sides by reddish hairs, his 

 clypeus, also being unusually high. 



The other section of this sub-family often presents dark 

 colors, and here the clypeus and eye-region are more frequently 

 marked with white pubescence or metallic scales than with red 

 hairs ; thus in A. tenuipes the dark clypeus of the male is cov- 

 ered with highly iridescent scales, and that of the female is 

 light yellow, covered with thick, snowy white hairs. 



The bright markings in some of these species have evi- 

 dently been transmitted to the females through 

 the males. Looking at the group as a whole, it is 

 important to note how frequently the adornment 

 is so placed upon the body as to be brought into 

 view when the spiders face each other. 



In Amyous micans, (Fig. 9), of which only the 

 male is known, the face is very high, and all its 

 parts are covered with glittering violet, green and Fig. 9.— Amycus 



^ , 7 n c • micans. Male, 



ffolden scales ; above the first row of eyes is a face ana faices 



^ ' - (from L. Koch). 



transverse band of scale-like hairs, some few 



longer hairs growing out between ; this band is shining, colored 



