250 THE COURTSHIP OF ANIMALS 



female . . . apparently with her consent." Five hours 

 later " he charged her, tore away two legs . . . and 

 began to suck one, using the mandibles to hold the limb 

 as a human being would a stick of asparagus." It is 

 not surprising to find she died an hour afterwards. An 

 examination of her remains brought to light the fact 

 that she was not mature. But this does not apparently 

 explain the ferocity of her partner, for this investigator 

 on two other occasions saw males similarly dismember 

 their spouses an hour or so after impregnation. This 

 horrid feast cannot have been prompted by hunger, for 

 one of these males had, but a few hours previously, 

 eaten a daddy-long-legs and two blow-flies. Only twice 

 did this investigator see a female of this species drive 

 away a male, and in each case immediately after union. 

 " On the other hand," he says, " I have kept an adult 

 pair together from the 22nd of August to the 28th of 

 October, and they lived in perfect amity. The male 

 never ceased paying unrequited attentions except to feed." 

 It will have been remarked that the behaviour of this 

 species in regard to mating differs conspicuously from 

 the accounts of observations on other species, wherein 

 the aggressive instincts are displayed by the female. 

 Mr. Campbell, commenting on these facts, remarks that 

 such conduct is just what one would expect from creatures 

 which lead solitary lives, and must have " come to regard 

 weaker forms of animal life as food, or as an inconvenience, 

 if we except its young or its mate when in the act of 

 pairing." Instincts which are habitually practised 

 throughout the greater portion of the life of the species, 

 and on which existence depends, would scarcely be 

 suspended for a longer period than necessary for sexual 

 union. Spiders frequently eat one another, and such 



