Page:The spiders of the northern states-1901.djvu/26

 JUMPING SPIDERS.—A77/D)D.

The jumping spiders make no webs to catch their prey, but spin nests in some crack or bark of a tree to use over winter, or for changing their skins. They also, when jumping, throw out a thread to avoid falling. They can walk easily sideways or backwards and can jump quite a distance. Their eyes are in three or four rows,—those in the middle of the lowest row being the largest; those of the row before the last sometimes almost invisibly small, and the last row placed far backward, nearly half the chest part.

Besides their eyes, their long square bodies and short legs and impudence make these spiders easily recognizable. The length of their legs vary; in some kinds the first pair, in others the fourth, the second and even the third are the longest. In some kinds the first pair of legs are much stouter than the others. Some kinds resemble ants closely in shape and actions; they even walking on six legs by stretching out one pair like feelers.

In Sa/ticus the last row of eyes is as far from the row before the last, as the eyes in this row are from each other. In Adéus they are not half that distance apart.

LYSSOMANES, , (Eyes in four rows.) SF

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/ 1. L. viridis ‘4 in. long. Green. Chest part with a black line, and body part with six or eight black dots.