372 Alexander Petronkevitch, 



sperm is not reallj^ puniped by suction produced by contraction and 

 expansion of the receptaculum, but rather that it is gradually drawn 

 into it through capillary attraction. Diiring the whole time of its 

 duration, the entire dorsal surface of the male remains exposed to 

 danger. 



When all the sperm has been drawn into the palpi the male 

 leaves the web never more to return to it. Some of my males filled 

 their palpi three separate times after mating with the female and 

 each time a new spermweb was constructed. After leaving the web 

 the male quiets down for a while and at least a day must elapse 

 before he can be induced to court a female. What the reason may 

 be, would be hard to say. Perhaps the sperm needs to undergo 

 some change in the bulb or perhaps the energy of the male is too 

 highly taxed and he requires rest. The next day he again becomes 

 restless and this is a sure sign that he will mate if he gets a chance. 

 In one instance a male filled his palpi on August 29th and attempted 

 mating in the middle of November, when he was alreadj^ quite stiff 

 and half dead. This goes to show how long the sperm remains 

 active in the palpus since my observations leave no room for doubt 

 that a male with empty palpi does not court and avoids contact 

 with the female. 



I do not know whether the male constructs the web and be- 

 haves in the manner described when he is doing it for the first 

 time in his life. My specimens were all mature wiien captured. 

 But it seems likely that the process is always performed in the 

 same way since in those cases where the males repeated it, their 

 behavior was invariably the same. I regret also that I do not know 

 whether in nature courtship and mating take place by night or by 

 day. Flashlight would disturb them and to photograph them would 

 be totally impossible even in a room with subdued light. Neither 

 male nor female, however, showed any aversion to mating in diffused 

 daylight. I mated the same female 13 times with four different 

 males, sometimes twice on the same day, in the morning with one 

 male and in the afternoon with another. 



Behavior of the female. 



The behavior of an immature female and that of a mature one 

 toward a courting male are entirely different. The immature female 

 does not accept the male and tries to get away, meeting an aggres- 

 sive male as an enemy. If flight is impossible she will fight and 



