374 Alexander Petrunkevitch, 



anterior, sometimes with all four front feet. After waiting- for a 

 while he raises tliem slowly and ag-ain beats rapidly. In doing- tliis 

 he hits with his tarsi whichever part of the female he happened 

 to touch and if, pausing-, he feels that she is moving away from 

 hini, he follows her, keeping his front legs in contact with her. He 

 is not, therefore, apt to lose a female if he flrst touches her with 

 his front legs, bnt if it happens to be one of his bind legs that 

 touches her, he is liable on turning round, to lose contact with her. 

 If then he walks in a direction different from that of the female, 

 even though as sometimes happens, their paths be parallel but a 

 little distance apart, he is not able to find her again but continues 

 to hit the bare ground with his front feet, eventually moving quite 

 away from her though the slightest move in another direction would 

 bring him again in contact with her, This continuous beating 

 with the front legs upon the body or legs of the female, constitutes 

 the first Step in the courtship on the part of the male. In case 

 the female does not attempt to run away, the male soon shifts his 

 Position until he is facing the female. The behavior of the female 

 during the first stage of the courtship is composed of two elements. 

 At the flrst touch she raises the front legs and assumes the attitude 

 of defence and threat. The subsequent touching results in her rising 

 high on her bind legs while still holding up the front legs. Finally 

 she opens the fangs and the male catches them with the hooks on 

 his front legs (Fig. 9). As this was done in every one of the 

 13 cases, it is evident that the hooks cannot be regarded as mere 

 secondary sexual characters and their origin should not be sought 

 in sexual selection. They serve admirably to guard the male against 

 possible injury or even death while at the same time aiding him in 

 the act of coitus. For he now forcibly pushes back the cephalo- 

 thorax of the female with his front legs and drums with the patellas 

 of the palpi on her sternum, all the time advancing (Fig. 10). Tlie 

 female, on the other band, is entirely disabled and either remains 

 motionless or is passively pushed backward along the ground until 

 she strikes some obstacle. The second part of the courtship is soon 

 at an end. The male introduces one of his bulbs into the genital 

 opening of the female (Fig. 11). All the muscles of the female 

 relax in this moment. She rests heavily with the end of her ab- 

 domen on the ground, her bind legs, automatically extended by the 

 elasticity of the cuticle (the legs of spiders have no extensors) drag 

 behind her. Her cephalothorax is often pushed back so violently 



