COURTSHIP AND MATING 83 



use of them during mating; in fact, seems to have no visual court- 

 ship at all. 



The European Pisaura mirabilis is remarkable for its habit of 

 presenting the female with a fly as an inducement to mating. Bris- 

 towe has described the activity in the following manner: 



A male was given a fly and placed in a box with a female. 

 He proceeded to enwrap the fly with silk, and then walked 

 about with it in a jerky fashion until presently the attention of 

 the female was attracted, and she approached him. He held out 

 the fly to her, and after testing it with her falces, she seized hold 

 of it. The male then crept to a position almost underneath the 

 female, a little to one side, and inserted his right palp. After 

 twenty-five minutes he withdrew his palp and joined the female 

 at the fly. This is rather a remarkable piece of instinct a car- 

 nivorous creature like a spider deliberately giving up his food 

 as an offering to the female. 12 



The Peckhams first brought to the attention of naturalists the 

 bizarre courtship antics of the American jumping spiders. The 

 females of this group are for the most part pleasantly colored in 

 grays and browns, while upon the males has been showered an in- 

 finite variety of color and ornament. The chelicerae are enlarged, 

 molded into odd form, and usually colored in iridescent purple, 

 green, or gold. The principal feature of the face is a row of four 

 great pearly-white eyes, and it is embellished above with crests or 

 plumes and overhung with bright hairy fringes. The first legs are 

 wonderfully ornamented with peculiar enlargements of striking 

 colors, and are clothed with fringes of long colored hairs, pendant 

 scales, and enlarged spines. Although less attention has been given 

 to the other legs, they also are sometimes supplied with unusual 

 ornamentation. 



The Peckhams thought that the male jumpers were much more 

 numerous and that "it was highly improbable that a female ever 

 mates with the first male that comes along. . . . She rejects the ad- 

 vances of one after another; she flies and is pursued; she watches, 

 with great attention, the display of many males, turning her head 

 from side to side as they move back and forth before her; she be- 

 comes so charmed as even to respond with motions of her own 

 body. If we may judge by her attitude, she is observant of every 



12 W. S. Bristowe, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, Vol. I (1926), p. 330. 



