i66 ASSOCIATION OF ORGANISMS THE WEB OF LIFE 



strongly developed in the males. Nor can it well be deemed as 

 probable that they are here the sought and not the seekers, for 

 we should then expect to find the eyes of the female better 

 developed than those of the opposite sex, but this is not the case. 



COURTSHIP AND MATING OF SPIDERS (ARANEiDyE) 



The lot of a male spider is not altogether desirable, for he is 

 much smaller than his prospective partner^ who sometimes makes 

 a meal of him. It is scarcely worth while in this case to make 

 separate headings of the Laws of Battle and Beauty, for both 

 may find their application at the same time. Dr. and Mrs. 

 Peckham have investigated this subject as regards species of the 

 family of Hunting Spiders (Attidce). Their observations, some 

 of which are quoted below (from Papers of the Natural History 

 Society of Wisconsin, 1889), are intensely interesting, and clearly 

 prove that the females of various species do not mate at random 

 with any swain that offers, often being exceedingly fastidious, and 

 sometimes tragically cruel. The males generally possess special 

 markings and ornaments, which they display in ways that often 

 appear grotesque; they also perform complex evolutions, some 

 of these being rather weird " dances " (fig. 1122), of which one 

 (for Saitis pulex) is thus described: " He saw her as she stood 

 perfectly still, 12 inches away; the glance seemed to excite him, 

 and he moved toward her; when some 4 inches from her he 

 stood still, and then began the most remarkable performances 

 that an amorous male could offer to an admiring female. She 

 eyed him eagerly, changing her position from time to time so 

 that he might be always in view. He, raising his whole body on 

 one side by straightening out the legs, and lowering it on the 

 other by folding the first two pair of legs up and under, leans so 

 far over as to be in danger of losing his balance, which he only 

 maintained by sidling rapidly towards the lowered side. The 

 palpus, too, on this side was turned back to correspond to the 

 direction of the legs nearest it (see fig. 1122). He moved in a 

 semicircle for about 2 inches, and then instantly reversed the 

 position of the legs and circled in the opposite direction, gradually 

 approaching nearer and nearer to the female. Now she dashes 

 towards him, while he, raising his first pair of legs, extends them 

 upward and forward to hold her off, but withal slowly retreats. 



