Ocyale undata.—When full grown over half an inch long, the thorax quarter of an inch, and the first and fourth legs an inch long. The thorax is almost as wide as long, and the head not much more than half as wide [(fig. 215)]. The abdomen is long and narrower than the thorax and a little pointed behind. The color is a light brownish yellow, with a wide darker and browner band on the middle of both thorax and abdomen. This band is bordered by a white line a little curved in and out toward the tail. In younger spiders the color is lighter and yellower; the middle stripe has the edges more undulating, and in very young ones it is serrated or even broken up into spots. The legs, which are plain in adults, are sometimes marked with rings in the young. The front end of the stripe is sometimes divided into two. These spiders live on bushes, without any web, until they have young. In the latter part of summer the females carry their flat cocoons under them, holding on with the mandibles. When the young are about to hatch the female builds a mass of web [(fig. 217)] three or four inches through, in which she leaves the cocoon, and the young come out and live for a time together in the web.
Oxyopes salticus.—The eyes are in three rows, the front one of two small eyes, the second of four eyes, and the upper of two. The head is wide and less separated from the thorax than in Lycosa and very high in front. The cephalothorax is two-thirds as wide as long and rounded both in front and behind [(fig. 218)]. The abdomen of the male is smaller than the cephalothorax, but that of the female is wider and longer. It is widest in the middle, rounded in front, and pointed behind. The legs are slender, the first pair longest, but all nearly of the same length and with very long spines. The colors and markings are very variable. The legs are white or pale yellow, with black spines. The light parts of the body are the same color, with brown and black markings. There are usually four brown stripes on the cephalothorax from the eyes backward, and two black lines in front from the lower eyes down the front of the mandibles [(fig. 219)]. The most constant mark of the abdomen is a pointed middle spot extending as far as the middle of the back. This is generally surrounded by light color, and at the sides are narrow oblique brown marks. There are sometimes fine black lines on the under sides of the femora and a wide black middle stripe under the abdomen. The males are sometimes colored like the female, and vary from this to black abdomen and palpi, with the rest of the body pale. A very common species in the southern states in the early summer, running on low bushes. There is another Oxyopes about the same size that has been found a few times as far north as New England.
Oxyopes (Peucetia) viridans.—This is a common and conspicuous spider in the South. It is a bright transparent green, with red spots and black spines. It grows to a length of three-quarters of an inch, but is found in great numbers early in the summer, when it is only a quarter of this size [(fig. 220)]. The head is narrower than in O. salticus, and the lateral eyes so high that they appear to belong to the upper rather than the middle row. The abdomen is the same width as the back part of the cephalothorax and tapers a little toward the spinnerets. The first pair of legs is longest and the second next. The general color is green, with the space between the eyes red, red spots and black spines on the legs, and two rows of red spots on the abdomen, sometimes united into a stripe, with pairs of white spots surrounded by red.