CHAPTER III. 

 COMPARATIVE VIEWS OF VARIOUS MATING HABITS. 



FROM the mating habits of the various tribes of spiders, as described in 

 the preceding chapters, a number of generalizations may be drawn with 

 more or less confidence. These I have thought well to place in a separate 

 chapter, together with several facts connected with reproduction, but not 

 heretofore alluded to. 



I. 



We may begin by noting the influence of the general habits and char- 

 acteristics of the various species upon the manner and conditions of mat- 

 ing. Several conclusions and inferences appear. 



First, a marked difference is observed between the methods 

 of the Sedentary and the Wandering groups; and this difference 

 is characterized by the radical difference in their manner of living and 

 capturing prey. The Sedentary spiders carry their persistent habit of 

 dwelling upon the snare into the act of pairing, and the snare is with 

 them constantly the scene of lovemaking. Their courtship and mating 

 proceed while they are hanging to the lines of their snares in the natural 

 attitudes of ordinary life. 



On the other hand, with the Wanderers the courtship is in the open, 

 and the male directly places himself upon the body of the female. In 

 this group, also, the power of ordinary habit is seen directing the act of 

 mating, although, of course, in an exactly opposite mode. In other words, 

 species that do not live by webs dispense with webs in mating. 



With the Tubeweavers, again, we see the same influence of general 

 habit. This tribe is properly classed with the Sedentary spiders, for they 

 dwell persistently within their webs, by which they capture their 

 } f prey in large measure. Yet they do not maintain upon their 

 Habits webs, for purposes of feeding, the inverted position that charac- 

 terizes Orbweavers and Lineweavers. In other words, instead of 

 hanging to their snares head downward, they rest upon their snares in a 

 position entirely similar to that of the ordinary attitude of individuals of 

 the Wandering group, and rush out upon the prey entangled within or 

 near their webs, which they seize and devour, generally without swathing 

 them, as also do the Wanderers. We might, therefore, reasoning from the 



(61) 



