CHAPTER XII 



SCORPIONS, SPIDERS AND CRABS 



Musical Lovers among Spiders and Scorpions — Colour among 

 Spiders, and its uses — The Spiders' Dance of Death — 

 Spiders and Conjugal Bliss — How Pairing is accomplished — 

 Scorpions in Love — Musical Crabs — Quarrelsome Fiddler -crabs 

 — Crabs and Courtship in the Deep Sea — Amazons among 

 Prawns — Brine-shrimps and Water-fleas — "Natural" v. 

 " Sexual " Selection, 



It is a curious and significant fact that in the most 

 brilliantly coloured of the Invertebrates — the Butterflies 

 and Moths — " courtship " in the sense of " wooing " is 

 extremely rarely met v^^ith ; and this is quite contrary 

 to what the Sexual Selection theory of Darwin demands, 

 for, according to this, the colours are the result of that 

 selection. On the other hand, Spiders, which are for 

 the most part dull-coloured creatures, and the Scorpions, 

 which are also dull-coloured, are commonly extra- 

 ordinarily demonstrative during the early stages of 

 " mate-hunger." Some practise the form of instrumental 

 music known as " stridulation," others dance and indulge 

 in other forms of posturing. 



In the Spiders the stridulating apparatus is formed 

 either between the limb-bearing portions of the body, 

 or " cephalothorax," and the abdomen ; between the 



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