94 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [Jan., 



epigyniim with considerable energy; the female faced him also on the 

 upper surface of the web (just within the funnel), lying partly on one 

 side with her legs drawn up, but not closely, to the sides of her body. 

 During the act the male pushed the female backward by his force. 

 When the palpus was inserted there was seen a large dilated sac 

 evaginated from the palpal organ. The female then ran off, and the 

 male proceeded to the process of sperm-induction. 



In these copulations the male accordingly first approaches slowly, 

 the female also sometimes making advances on her part, and con- 

 cludes with a rush at the female, and if he is quicker than she he suc- 

 ceeds in inserting his palpus. The fact that females copulate after 

 cocooning makes it appear probable that a copulation may precede 

 the making of each cocoon. 



Sperm-induction. — 6^ No. 218 was watched during this act, which 

 occurred immediately after his copulation with $ No. 75 (concluded 

 at 10.03 P.M.). He first spun across an area of nearly a square inch 

 on the upper surface of the web, then limited himself to a small area 

 just at the entrance of the tunnel of the web. Here, by very rapid 

 brushing of the spinnerets from side to side, he constructed a deli- 

 cate silk sheeting placed at an acute angle to the surface of the nearly 

 horizontal web, the posterior and lateral edges of this sheeting attached 

 to the web, but its anterior edge unattached and elevated like an arch. 

 From side to side this sheeting was not quite so long as the length of 

 his body, and half this distance from Ijefore backw^ard. He then 

 stood over it, so that the ventral surface of his abdomen almost touched 

 the superior surface of the sheeting, his cephalothorax above the 

 anterior (free) edge of it, and his spinnerets at its posterior edge. At 

 10.21^ P.M. he moved his abdomen slightly forward, discharged from 

 his genital aperture a minute drop of sperm upon the superior surface 

 of the sheeting at its free edge, and from that moment until 10.28 he 

 was engaged in taking this sperm into his palpal organs. This he did 

 by pressing the ventral (posterior) surface of each palpal organ on 

 the under surface of the sheeting, just at the point where the drop of 

 sperm had been placed on its upper surface; one palpus he held thus, 

 with occasional shaking, for 10 to 15 seconds, then the other, until 

 the whole of the drop was inducted; and each palpus when not so 

 busied he held in front of his cephalothorax and shook it in the air, 

 as if to force the semen deeper into the organ. From 10.27 until 10.34, 

 just after the completion of this process, he remained in the same posi- 

 tion, but quietly and with no further discharge of semen upon the 

 sheeting. Then he left the sheeting, worked his palpi a short while 



