Habit and Instinct. 45 [ 



most remarkable performances that an amorous male could 

 offer to an admiring female. She eyed him eagerly, 

 changing her position from time to time, so that he might 

 be always in view. He, raising his whole body on one 

 side by straightening out the legs, and lowering it on the 

 other by folding the first two pairs of legs up and under, 

 leaned so far over as to be in danger of losing his balance, 

 which he only maintained by sidling rapidly towards the 

 lowered side. The palpus, too, on this side was turned 

 back to correspond to the direction of the legs nearest it. 

 He moved in a semicircle for about two inches, and then 

 instantly reversed the position of the legs, and circled in 

 the opposite direction, gradually approaching nearer and 

 nearer to the female. Now she dashes towards him, while 

 he, raising his first pair of legs, extends them upward and 

 forward as if to hold her off, but withal slowly retreats. 

 Again and again he circles from side to side, she gazing 

 towards him in a softer mood, evidently admiring the grace 

 of his antics. This is repeated until we have counted a 

 hundred and eleven circles made by the ardent little male. 

 Now he approaches nearer and nearer, and when almost 

 within reach whirls madly around and around her, she 

 joining and whirling with him in a giddy maze. Again he 

 falls back and resumes his semicircular motions, with his 

 body tilted over ; she, all excitement, lowers her head and 

 raises her body, so that it is almost vertical ; both draw 

 nearer ; she moves slowly under him, he crawling over her 

 head, and the mating is accomplished." 



It can scarcely be doubted that such antics, performed 

 in presence of the female and suggested at sight of her, 

 serve to excite in the mate sexual appetence. If so, it can, 

 further, scarcely be doubted that there are degrees of such 

 excitement, that certain antics excite sexual appetence in 

 the female less fully or less rapidly than others ; yet others, 

 perhaps, not at all. If so, again, it can hardly be ques- 

 tioned that those antics which excite most fully or most 

 rapidly sexual appetence in the female will be perpetuated 

 through the selection of the male which performs them. 



