382 ARACHNIDA ARANEAE CHAP. 



but it was hiirdly to be expected that their counterpart would 

 exist among spiders. Yet the antics by which male Attidae 

 endeavour to attract the attention of the females afford an 

 almost exact parallel. 



The following extract from the account of Professor and Mrs. 



o 



Peckham 1 of their observations on Saitis pulex will make this 

 abundantly clear : " When some four inches from her he stood 

 still, and then began the 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. . . . 

 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 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." 

 A similar but not exactly identical performance was gone 

 through by the male of several different species, but it was note- 

 worthy that the particular 

 attitudes he adopted were 

 always such as to display to 

 the best advantage his special 

 beauties, whether they con- 

 sisted in crested head, fringed 

 palpi and fore - legs, or iri- 

 FIG. 200. Dancing attitude of male idus descent abdomen. Sometimes 



mitratus. (After Peervham.) 



even such exertions failed to 



captivate the female, and she would savagely attack the male, 

 occasionally with fatal effect. 



1 Sexual Selection in Spiders, p. 37. (Occasional Papers of the Nat. Hist. Soc. 

 of Wisconsin, I., 1889.) 



