44 



AMERICAN SPIDEKS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



until the body made an angle of about forty-five degrees with the line, 

 and while holding on thus the palps were rubbed back and forth alter- 

 nately along the line as before. The process was repeated during another 

 of the intermissions, as described above. It was conjectured that the pur- 

 pose of this movement might have been the distribution of the seminal 

 fluid into the palpal bulbs. It has been supposed that this is taken up by 

 the sacs, by the inflation and contraction of whose membraneous coats it is 

 forced into the spermathecae of the female. 



Mr. Emerton ^ observed the pairing of the male and female of Steatoda 



borealis in April, and again in May. The female was in a scant web under 



a fence cap. The pair stood head to head, as far apart as pos- 



ea o a g-|^|p r^i^^ j^^^ palpus was kept in an hour and a quarter after 



nOVPH lie X X i i 



the couple were first seen. The male contracted his body sud- 

 denlj', and swelled up the base of the palpal organ once every two or three 

 seconds. Two days afterwards Emerton saw the right palpus used by the 

 same pair for an hour. The adult males and females of this species occur 

 at all seasons, differing in this respect from many others. 



II. 



Among the Tubeweavers I have observed the pairing of our common 

 Speckled Agalena. The male cautiously approaches over the broad sheeted 



Fig. 19. Agalena nsvia pairing. 

 Front view. (After Emerton.) 



Fio. 20. Agalena nsevia applying 

 the right palp in pairing. 



Fig. 21. Agalena appljnng the 

 left palp in pairing. 



web which forms a sort of front yard or plaza before the tube in which 

 the female waits. He is usually larger than the female, and is, therefore, 

 better able to compel a respectful reception. In the act of union 

 ^ ^' he takes his partner in his mandibles, turns her upon one side, 

 Agalena "^ which position she lies perfectly motionless, and with her 

 legs somewhat doubled together, as in the attitude of feigning 

 death. (Fig. 19) The male rests upon the side of the female, in a posi- 

 tion nearly at right angles with her prostrate body, and, while holding 

 her still with his fore feet, apjilies the palps alternately to the vulva. 

 (See Figs. 20, 21.) 



1 New England TherididiE, Trans. Acad. Conn., 1882, page 19. 



