56 THE GENETIC AND THE OPERATIVE EVIDENCE 



on one side with his legs still extended. These antics are repeated for a very 

 long time, often for hours, when at last the female, either won by his beauty or 

 worn out by his persistence, accepts his addresses." (Pp. 45, 46.) 



In another species, Dendryphantes elegans, both sexes are brilliantly 

 colored. 



"The male is covered with iridescent scales, his general color being green; 

 in the female the coloring is dark, but iridescent, and in certain lights has lovely 

 rosy tints. In the sunlight both shine with the metallic splendor of humming- 

 birds. The male alone has a superciliary fringe of hairs on either side of his 

 head, his first legs being also longer and more adorned than those of his mate. 

 The female is much larger, and her loveliness is accompanied by an extreme 

 irritability of temper which the male seems to regard as a constant menace to 

 his safety, but his eagerness being great, and his manners devoted and tender, 

 he gradually overcomes her opposition. Her change of mood is only brought 

 about after much patient courting on his part. While from three to five 

 inches distant from her he begins to wave his plumy first legs in a way that 

 reminds one of a wind-mill. She eyes him fiercely and he keeps at a proper 

 distance for a long time. If he comes close she dashes at him and he quickly 

 retreats. Sometimes he becomes bolder and when within an inch, pauses, 

 with the first legs outstretched before him, not raised as is common in other 

 species; the palpi also are held stiffly out in front with the points together. 

 Again she drives him off, and so the play continues. Now the male grows 

 excited as he approaches her, and while still several inches away whirls com- 

 pletely around and around; pausing, he runs closer and begins to make his 

 abdomen quiver as he stands on tip-toe in front of her. Prancing from side to 

 side, he grows bolder and bolder, while she seems less fierce, and yielding to the 

 excitement lifts up her magnificently iridescent abdomen, holding it at one 

 time vertically and at another sideways to him. She no longer rushes at him, 

 but retreats a little as he approaches. At last he comes close to her, lying flat, 

 with his first legs stretched out and quivering. With the tips of his front legs 

 he gently pats her; this seems to arouse the old demon of resistance, and she 

 drives him back. Again and again he pats her with a caressing movement, 

 gradually creeping nearer and nearer, which she now permits without resis- 

 tance until he crawls over her head to her abdomen, far enough to reach the 

 epigynum with his palpus". (Pp. 46-47.) 



If we lay no emphasis on the implied emotional elements in the 

 behavior of the spiders in this description terms of emotion borrowed 

 direct from human psychology there still remain the several types 

 of apparently significant reactions associated with courtship. The 

 statements leave no room for doubt that vision plays an important 

 role in the complex reflexes that lead gradually to successful mating. 

 The Peckhams insist that the display of the male is always of a kind 

 to bring before the female the special adornments of the male in what- 

 ever part of the body they may lie. The chance of subjective inter- 

 pretation here is so great that unless the results are carefully checked 

 up by studies of the attitudes assumed by males in species in which 

 the males are without ornament, their interpretation must be taken 

 with the greatest reserve. Assigning, as our authors do, so much by 

 gratuitous implication to the emotional side of the picture prejudices 



