Peckham—Revision of the Attidce of North America. 363 
plumes are “effective” the effect must he to make a female choose 
one male rather than another because of them. Among the 
variations that appear, whatever she does not see is of no use to 
the male in winning her, and is dropped out; whatever is vis¬ 
ible and exciting to her is perpetuated and the choice of 
the most striking male, from a number of wooers, by the female, 
has resulted in a progressive development of highly colored and 
modified species. Mr. Wallace’s hypothesis may explain the 
impulse to display, but the only theory that explains the form 
that the display takes is that of female selection. 
We have made a careful study of the types in the Cambridge 
collection which were described in 1885 by Keyserling. In 
most of the identifications we agree with Mr. Banks and Mr. 
Emerton. Our results are as follows: Phidippus purpuratus 
and albomaculatus are the male and female of the same species, 
which should be called purpuratus K.; pulcherrimus is a good 
species which has since been found by Mr. Banks; ruber is a 
synonym of McCookii P.; gracilis is a synonym of our Putnamii 
and bicolor of our Johnsonii; clarus is a good species and in¬ 
cludes rufus P., rufus B., and multiformis E.; Icius elegans 
is a Sadala, probably from Mexico ; Icius nigromaculatus is a 
good species, belonging to Dendryphantes; I. albovittatus equals 
D. militaris H.; I. crassiventer equals D. capitatus H.; I. vit- 
tatus equals Wala palmarum H.; Ephippus americanus is a 
good species of which speciosa B. is a synonym. It belongs to 
Pellenes. Ergane tseniata is probably the young of Stoides au- 
ratus H.; Cyrba pulex equals Habrocestum pulex H. as Keyser¬ 
ling himself states, and Saitis xnotata is the female of the same 
species; Pelenes nigriceps is a small variety of our Pellenes 
splendens; Menemerus cruciferus equals Stoides auratus H. 
Homolattus septentrionalis equals Agassa cyanea H.; Wala al- 
bovittata equals Wala palmarum H.; Agobardus anormalis 
seems to be a good species but probably does not belong to Korth 
America. 
The spiders from Elorida described by Dr. Albert Tullgren 
in 1893, under the names Phidippus clarconensis, P. oaklanden- 
sis and P. bilineatus, are probably synonyms of species already 
known, but they are so uncertain that we do not include them. 
