BULLETIN 
OF THE 
WISCONSIN NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
Vol. 1 . New Series. 
OCTOBER, 1900. 
INo. 4. 
Pellenes and Some Other Genera of the Family Attidae. 
Pellenes E. S. 1876. 
The cephalothorax is high, convex, and a httle longer than wide, 
with the cephahc plate inclined, and the thoracic part dilated, and 
somewhat widened out from above downward. The quadrangle 
of the eyes is from one-fourth to one-third wider than long, occu- 
pies two-fifths of the cephalothorax, and is usually wider behind 
than in front, although in some cases it is equally wide in front 
and behind or wider in front. The front eyes form a straight or 
slightly curved row, the middle' eyes being near together and 
about twice as large as the lateral, from which they are distinctly 
separated. The second row is about halfway between the first 
and the third ; the third, is nearly as wide as the cephalothorax 
at that place, the eyes being almost equally distant from each 
other and from the lateral borders. The labium is at least as 
wide as long and is half as long as the maxillae. The falces 
are vertical, parallel and rather weak, with small fangs. Among 
the European species the legs are 1342 in the males and 3142 in 
the females, but among the American, the third and fourth are 
most commonly longer than the first and second in both sexes. 
The male palpus is very constant in form, the bulb being short 
and rounded. 
The males of Pellenes have, usually, some peculiar modifica- 
tion of form, color, or ornament, appearing in the first and third 
legs. These fringes, enlargements, and markings are used to 
attract and delight the female during courtship, the posturing and 
dancing being such as to show off every beauty to the greatest 
advantage.* They make the identification of the males compara- 
tively easy, while the females resemble each other so closely as 
to make it very difhcult to distinguish them. The young males 
are like the females until within o ne or two moults from maturity. 
*An account of the courtship of P. splendens and P. Hoxvardii may be found in our paper, Sex- 
ual Selection in Spiders of the Family Attidae, Occ. Pap. Nat. Hist. Soc. of Wisconsin, Vol. 1, No. 
1, 1899. and Vol. 1, No. 3, 1900. 
