I have found this spider common on sand grass, where nothing else grows, and the young lying lengthwise on the leaves could hardly be seen. They mature in the middle of the summer. When the male approaches the female he raises the front legs at an angle of sixty degrees with each other, raises the abdomen a little, and advances by short runs, twitching the front legs and abdomen every few moments.

Cyrba tæniola.—A small flat spider, nearly black, the females quarter of an inch long, and the males a sixth of an inch [(fig. 159)]. The cephalothorax is one-half longer than wide, very low and flat, with the sides parallel for half its length. The front middle eyes are large and close together, the lateral eyes half as large and a little separated from them. The first legs are twice as thick as the others and have the femora flattened, but in the female the fourth legs are longest. The abdomen is as wide as the cephalothorax and a little longer. The hairs all over the body are short. The cephalothorax is black, smooth, and without markings. The abdomen is dark gray, with two rows of white spots often indistinct and perhaps sometimes absent. The legs have the femora and patella and tibia of first and second pairs black or dark brown and the other joints light and black at the ends. The under side is of an inch long and very slender. The cephalothorax is black. The sternum is very short, so that the basal joints of the front legs touch each other.

Hasarius hoyi.—This species may be known by its peculiar colors,—the dark portions brown or black and the light parts white and orange brown (figs. [161, 162]). These colors are, as usual, brighter and the markings more distinct in the males. In front around the eyes the cephalothorax is covered with white hairs. At the sides a white band extends backward under the eyes, turning inward but not reaching the middle line. There is a light band, part white and part orange, around the abdomen and several angular marks in the middle, two of them in the hinder half, sometimes united into a large spot. In alcohol, and less plainly seen when alive, is a light band under the hairs, extending across the middle of the cephalothorax and forward on the sides under the eyes.

In females all these markings are less distinct, but traces of them can be found in most individuals. The colors are more brownish, and the markings of the abdomen smaller and more uniform in shape. The markings of the legs are dark on the middle joints and light at the base and on the tarsi, with strong contrasts in color in the males and little in the females. The length of this species is about a quarter of an inch for large females. The males are smaller.