THE NATURAL 



CHAPTER XIII 



THE MECHANISM OF LOVE 



V. Artificial fecundation. Disjunction of the secreting 

 apparatus from the copulating apparatus. Spiders. 

 Discovery of their copulative method. Brutality of 

 the female. Habits of the epeire. The argyronete. 

 The tarantula. Exceptions: the reapers. Dragon- 

 flies (libellule). Dragon-flies (demoiselle) virgins and 

 "jouvencelle." Picture of their love affairs. 



THE apparatus for secreting sperm and that for copulat- 

 ing are sometimes separated. The female has a vagina 

 normally situated; the male has no penis, or else it is 

 situated in some part of the body not in symmetry with 

 the receiving apparatus. It is then necessary either for 

 the male to make an artificial penis, as one has seen in the 

 cephalopodes, and as in the spider, or for him to engage 

 in complicated manoeuvres to dominate the female, and 

 to engineer the conjunction of the two apparatus, as does 

 the dragon-fly (libellule). 



The method of most arachnids strangely resembles the 

 medical practice called artificial fecundation, although 

 it is hardly more so than normal fecundation. In both 

 it is a question of putting spermatozoides in the way of 

 encountering ovules: it matters little whether phallus 

 or syringe be the vehicle. The spider uses a syringe. 



112 



