72 WILDER, TEBMEYEB'S 



the natural size. The cross, more or less ornamented, which 

 it has upon the abdomen He its principal distinction. What 

 patience was required to tind the male of this spider ! He 

 never appears in the centre of the beautiful webs, and even 

 when I saw him he was, as to the abdomen and palpi so dif- 

 ferent from the female, which in other respects he resem- 

 bled, that I should not have supposed him of the same spe- 

 cies. He never spins webs, except in the time of his amours 

 or rather before uniting, that is to say, at puberty, but it is 

 then in an angle of an old web of a female which he repairs 

 somewhat ; 'and I have only seen him walking about in the 

 months of his amours which are September and October. 

 I have seen him but once in July. 



He approaches little by little, and with much caution, 

 doubtful .of the reception with which he is to meet in the 

 web of the female, who occupies its centre intent only on 

 her prey. He commences by touching with one leg a thread 

 of the web; the female approaches him; he flies, allowing 

 himself to hang, then he rises, winding up the thread, when 

 he; is. assured, by I know not what movement, that he will 

 not be ill received; then he approaches her, and with one of 

 the palpi touches her stomach quickly many times. Then he 

 retires,^ then returns, repeats the same act and departs, if 

 he succeeds in leaving. I say if he succeeds, because I wish to 

 relate what came under my observation in 1798, and which, 

 while it unveiled to me all the mystery of the generation of 

 spiders, presented to me also an argument, if not of the 

 innate cruelty of the female spider, at least of its insensi- 

 bility and ingratitude. I had put a male and a female of 

 the diadema spider together into a box like a drum, closed 

 with a veil at both ends. The male began by making various 

 movements, as if to draw the attention of the female, who 

 pretended not to perceive him, but only from time to 

 time touched some thread of the web. He boldly ap- 

 proached her, directing one of his palpi to her abdomen, 

 and she extending this toward the palp. k Here is the 



k. Also obscure : " Ardito il maschio a lei s'avvacino indirizzando al di 

 lei addome uno de' palpi e stendendo (stendenda?) essa verso quello 1'estre- 

 mita dell' addome." On another page a part of this passage is thns given : 

 " e voltando essa verso quel palpo la parte postica dello stesso addome." [RE- 

 VISES.] 



