66 FLASHLIGHTS ON NATURE 



I nave left to the last the delicate question of 

 the domestic relations of spiders, which are cer- 

 tainly not of a sort to be commended for imitation. 

 The lady spider, indeed, too closely resembles the 

 late Mr. Deeming and the natives of Fiji in her 

 unsatisfactory notions of conjugal affection. I 

 regret to say it is her reprehensible habit to devour 

 alive her unsuccessful suitors, and sometimes also 

 the father of her own children. These are unami- 

 able traits, but I must not conceal them. You 

 will observe, no doubt, that throughout I have said 

 comparatively little of the masculine spider, and 

 much of his lady ; and I have done this of set 

 purpose ; for spiders are a group in which the 

 dominance of the females is marked and undeni- 

 able. The matriarchate prevails ; the females are 

 the race, and the males exist only as lazy drones, 

 mere idle fathers of future generations. This 

 being so, the mother spider, true to her thrifty 

 ideas, regards them in the light of necessary evils ; 

 and being always economical, she thinks it well to 

 utilise them for the purposes of the race by eating 

 them up the moment they have fulfilled their sole 

 and single marital function. 



This peculiar habit makes the courtship of 

 spiders a grim tragi-comedy, well worth observ- 

 ing. In No. 9 Mr. Knock has represented one 

 salient scene in the painful drama. And this is 

 the interpretation thereof. Two male spiders have 

 come to pay their court to the supercilious Rosa- 

 lind. She, good lady, sits unconcerned but watch- 

 ful in the centre or hub of her snare, apparently 



