COURTSHIP AND MATING OF SPIDERS 



167 



Again and again he circles from side to side, she gazing towards 

 him in a softer mood, evidently admiring the grace of his antics. 

 This is repeated until we have counted 1 1 1 circles made by the 

 ardent little male. Now he approaches nearer and nearer, and 

 when almost within reach, whirls madly around and around her, 

 she joining and whirling with him in a giddy maze." One feels 

 quite glad to hear that the suit of this particular male was suc- 

 cessful. He was decidedly in luck, for we learn that the females 



Fig. 1 1 22. Courtship Attitudes of Male Spiders, enlarged. A, Saitis pulex, dancing. B, Habrocestum sphndens 

 approaching female, c and D, Red and black varieties of Astia. vittata in approaching attitudes. 



of his species are very fastidious, and frequently turn admirers 

 away. 



A number of males often compete for the good graces of a 

 single female in some of the species observed, in which case the 

 latter takes some time to make up her mind. Competing wooers 

 from time to time interrupt their antics to tussle with one another. 

 Boldness or persistence sometimes wins the day. The male of 

 one species (Dendryphantes capitatus] may frisk around for hours 

 displaying his special beauties, until " at last the female, either 

 won by his beauty or worn out by his persistence, accepts his 

 addresses ". And in another form (Hasarius Hoyi) a male was 

 brave enough to walk up to an evidently displeased female, 

 " when she seized him and seemed to hold him by the head for 



