30 PECKHAM. [Vol. 1. 



from Madagascar, where there is long projection from the an- 

 terior face of each falx, the two processes extending forward and 

 looking a little like a pair of horns; they are more than half as 

 long as the cephalothorax.^ 



The height of the clypeus- was formerly used in the class- 

 ification of Attidx, but it has more recently been found to be 

 so entirely a sexual peculiarity, as to be of little or no 

 taxonomic value. It is frequently adorned by colored hairs, 

 which fall over the falces, or is diversified by curious patterns 

 formed by bars and patches of down. The very striking ap- 

 pearance that a spider presents with this feature well developed 

 is shown in TitancMus Sfevun, a male from Guatemala. In a 

 common North American spider, Dendryphantes 

 capitatus, (Fig. 8), the clypeus of the male is con- 

 spicuously marked by several white bands ; one 

 passes up between the anterior middle eyes from 

 the base of the falces : and two on each side pass 



Pig. 8.— Dendry- 

 phantes capitatus. back over the cephalothorax. The contrast 



Male, tace, talces ^ 



naturef'" ""^""^ between these snowy white bands and the dark 

 color of the rest of the face is exceedingly strik- 

 ing. The female has the whole clypeus whitish and is not at 

 all conspicuous. In two species of Habroceslum, coronatum and 

 csecatum, the clypeus is covered with bright red hairs. In de- 

 scribing H. coronatum, Hentz says that " the bright scarlet spot 

 on its front gives to this spider a whimsical air of fierceness, 

 which is heightened by its attitudes and singular motions." ^ 

 In Thorellia ensifer, the male has two bunches of stout dark 

 hairs projecting forward from just above the insertion of the 

 falces, which are not present in the female.^ HyUus pterygodes^ 

 has the clypeus, or rather what might be called the cheeks, drawn 



1 On Some New Genera and Species of Attidm from Madagascar, G. W and E. 

 Gr. Peckham, Proc. Nat. Hist. Soc. of Wisconsin, p. 31. 



2 The clypeu.i is all of the face above the insertion of the falces and below 

 the first row of eyes. 



3 North American Senders, p. 6.1. 



4 Koch and Keyserling, Arachniden Austrnliens, p. 1353. 

 6 Id ihid., p. 1339. 



