CHAP. VI The Domestic Life of Anhnals loi 



hoppers, and the flashing signals of the glow-insects, it is 

 just that we should turn to the strange courtship of spiders, 

 which is less ideal. Of what we may be prepared to find 

 we get a hint from a common experience. Not long ago I 

 found in a gorge some spiders which I had never seen 

 before. Wishing to examine them at leisure, I captured a 

 male and a female, and, having only one box, put them, 

 with misgivings, together. When I came to examine 

 them, however, the male was represented by shreds. 

 Such unnatural conduct, though by no means universal 

 among spiders, is common. The tender mercies of spiders 

 are cruel. We have lately obtained an account of the 

 courtship of spiders from George W. and Elizabeth G. 

 Peckham, from whose careful observations I select the 

 following illustrations : 



According to these observers, " there is no evidence that the 

 male spiders possess greater vital activity ; on the contrary, it is 

 the female that is the more active and pugnacious of the two. 

 There is no relation in either sex between development of colour 

 and activity. The Lycosida, which are the most active of all 

 spiders, have the least colour-development, while the sedentary orb- 

 weavers show the most brilliant hues. In the numerous cases 

 where the male differs from the female by brighter colours and 

 ornamental appendages, these adornments are not only so placed 

 as to be in full view of the female during courtship, but the atti- 

 tudes and antics of the male spider at that time are actually such as 

 to display them to the fullest extent possible. The fact that in the 

 Attida the males vie with each other in making an elaborate dis- 

 play, not only of their grace and agility, but also of their beauty, 

 before the females, and that the females, after attentively watching 

 the dances and tournaments which have been executed for their 

 gratification, select for their mates the males that they find most 

 pleasing, points strongly to the conclusion that the great differences 

 in colour and in ornament between these spiders are the result of 

 sexual selection." 



These conclusions support Darwin's position that the female's 

 choice is a great factor in evolving attractiveness, and are against 

 Wallace's contention that bright colours express greater vitality, 

 and that the females are less brilliant because enemies eliminate 

 the conspicuous. It is quite likely that Darwin's view is true in 

 some cases (^e.g. these spiders), and Wallace's conclusion true in 

 others i^e.g. birds and butterflies), or that both may be true in 



