42 



PECKHAM. 



[Vol. 1. 



Pit;- 15. — Undesoribed species. 

 Position of male approacliing fe- 

 male (from nature by L. K.). 



the first legs are held down toward the ground, diverging slightly 

 near the head, and are bent inward at the middle so that the tips 

 turn toward each other and meet. 

 (Fig. 15.) At times he turns the apex 

 of his abdomen down ; at other times 

 he keeps it straight, as he moves from 

 side to side ; the palpi are folded 

 under. He sometimes varies his atti- 

 tude by lying fiat on his venter, keep- 

 ing the tips of the legs touching as 

 before. 



HASARIUS HOYI. 



The sexes are very different, so 

 much so that we at first described 

 them as two species, the male being 

 the more conspicuous of the two. The males are ready in the 

 early days of June, and the females a little later. In his dance 

 the male has several movements; most commonly he goes 

 rapidly from side to side with his first legs obliquely up ; (Fig. 

 16) ; at other times he twists the 

 abdomen to one side and bending 

 low on the other, something as 

 •pulex did, goes first in one direc- 

 tion for about two inches, and then, 

 reversing, circles to the opposite 

 point. The females are very sav- 

 age, especially with each other; and 

 even the members of the sterner 

 sex are not always free from danger when paying their pre- 

 paratory addresses. Once we saw a female eagerly watching a 

 prancing male and as he slowly approached her she raised her 

 legs as if to strike him, but he, nothing daunted by her unkindly 



obstinate battle ; he did not watch it to the close, but believes that it was "withou t 

 bloodshed." 



Vinson, on the contrary, mentions a fatal combat between two males o( Epeira 

 niger that he had shut up in a bottle with a female. Araueidps de La Eeunion, 

 Maurices et Madagascar, p. 190. We have a cousin of this species, Argiope cophinaria, 

 and though we have seen the two or three little males that were courting a female 

 manoeuvre together the results were never serious. 



Fig. 16.— Hasarius hoyi. Position 

 of male approaching female (from 

 nature by L. K.). 



