24 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



but less frequently, noted similar treatment of the male Insularis by his 

 mate. He is better equipped for taking care of himself than the male 

 Cophinaria, but, nevertheless, sometimes pays the penalty of his rashness 

 and importunity. 



Notwithstanding the above facts, I have reason to know that matters 

 are sometimes reversed, and the female is the victim of the cannibal ap- 

 petite of the male. Among my own specimens, for example, I 



have had a male of the Furrow spider, which was enclosed in a 

 Destroy 

 Females J ar a l n g with two females, satisfy his hunger by devouring one 



of his partners. Baron Walckenaer saw a male of Epeira incli- 

 nata take advantage of a female of his species, which was not able to stir 

 without difficulty, being full of eggs, to attack, garrote, and eat her. 1 



Mr. Campbell observed the male of Tegenaria guyonii destroying the 

 female. Of one pair which he placed together, the male at once began to 

 pay his addresses. Shortly afterward he rapidly applied one of his palps 

 to the female, in the manner elsewhere described, and, apparently, with her 

 consent. Five hours afterward he charged his partner, tore away two legs 

 below the trochanter, and began to suck one, using the mandibles to hold 

 the limb, just as a human being would a stick of asparagus. The female 

 died an hour afterward. This female lacked one moult of being mature ; 

 but her killing cannot be explained by her supposed sexual incapability, 

 for Mr. Campbell says he saw two males similarly dismember their spouses 

 an hour after union. Hunger could not have been the cause of this feroc- 

 ity, for they were well fed. In fact, males in confinement take their food 

 much better than females, which may be due to their being accustomed to 

 feed, during their sexual excursions, in places which are strange to them. 

 Only twice did Mr. Campbell see a female of Tegenaria drive the male 

 away. In both cases this occurred immediately after union. On the other 

 hand, as illustrating the difference which individual disposition or circum- 

 stances may produce, the same observer kept together an adult pair of 

 this species from the 22d of August to the 28th of October, more than two 

 months, and they lived in perfect unity. The male never ceased paying 

 unrequited attentions, except to feed. 2 



Excepting one spider, Argyroneta aquatica, whose male is larger than 

 his mate, all those found in Great Britain have the female either equal 



in size to, or else larger than, the male. (See Figs. 9, 10.) The 

 Relative difference, however, between the sexes in these northern regions 

 Sexes * s no ^ carrie d to the extreme limits which are frequently reached 



in the tropics. For example, Nephila chrysogaster Walck., an 

 almost universally distributed tropical Epe'iroid, measures two inches in 

 length of body, while that of the male scarcely exceeds one-tenth of an 

 inch, and is less than one thirteen-hundredth part of her weight. In other 



1 Apteres, I., page 143, 2 Pairing of Tegenaria guyonii, page 168. 



