WOOING AND MATING. 



21 



Love 

 Signals. 



wa it sometimes, but not always, changing his position until his advances 

 were favorably received, or were so decidedly repulsed that he was com- 

 pelled to retire. With Labyrinth spiders I have generally seen the male 

 stationed upon the maze, or that part of the snare which consists of 

 crossed lines. Here he would make for himself, as he hung back down- 

 ward, a little dome of spinningwork, which spread above him 

 like a miniature umbrella. (Fig. 4.) The male of Argiope 

 cophinaria feels the web with his feet for some time 1 before 

 the final approach. The male of Linyphia marginata, as he cautiously 

 approaches, pulls upon the threads connecting his own with his lady's 

 bower. 2 The male of Epei- 

 ra diademata commences his 

 courtship by touching with 

 one leg a thread of his lady's 

 web. 3 



Professor Peckham's ob- 

 servation upon the courtship 



of Argiope coph- 

 Argiope's inaria is to the 



same effect. When 



advancing towards 

 the female, the male seems to 

 pause and pull at the strands 

 of the web, as though to no- 

 tify her of his approach. 

 When he comes toward her 

 from the front she imparts 

 a slight motion to the web 



Love 

 Signals. 



with her legs, which seems 



to serve as a warning, as he FlG - * Three male Labyrinth spiders 



in attendance upon a female. The fe- 

 either moves away Or drops male is the upper figure, in the nest. 



out of the web. When he 



comes from behind, she pays no attention to him until he begins to creep 

 up on her body, when she slowly raises one of her long legs and brushes 

 him off. 



The same author watched the successive and unsuccessful approaches 

 of three males who were paying their court to a female Argiope argyraspis. 

 The warning vibration of the web as the males approached was noted in 

 this species also, and Professor Peckham believed that the female recog- 

 nized from the character of the vibration the advent of a male, distin- 

 guishing the movement of the lines from that made by a struggling 



1 Emerton, " Habits and Structure," page 87. 



2 See my description of the pairing, hereafter. 



3 Termeyer : Proceedings Essex Institute, Vol. I., page 71, 



