No. 1.] SEXUAL SELECTION IN SPIDERS. 45 



female rufus is a ferocious creature, having a great advantage 

 in size, and so it happened that our assiduous male, in an 

 unguarded moment, was pounced upon and eaten up. 



PHIDIPPUS MORSITANS. 



On this species we have but few notes. The single female 

 that we caught during the summer was a savage monster. The 

 two males that we provided for her had offered her only the 

 merest civilities, when she leaped upon them and killed them. 

 The sexes are quite alike in color and marking, but while the 

 female has the fourth leg longest, the male has the first pair 

 not only much the longer, but thickly adorned with white 

 hairs, some of which are long and others short and scale-like. 

 It was while one of the males was waving these handsome legs 

 over his head that he was seized by his mate and devoured. 

 The tibia of the palpus is also covered with white hairs, which 

 make a strong contrast with the general black color, and this is 

 held out in such a way as to make a display as he approaches 

 the female. 



DENDRYPHANTES CAPITATUS. 



The sexes are entirely different. In the male the bronze 

 brown face is made very conspicuous by some snowy white 

 bands, as is shown in the drawing. These are wanting in the 

 female, her face being rufus with some few scattering white 

 hairs. The males of capitatus are very quarrelsome, sparring 

 whenever they meet, chasing each other about, and sometimes 

 clinching. It is a very abundant spider with us, so that we 

 often put eight or ten males into a box to see them fight. It 

 seemed cruel sport at first, but it was soon apparent that they 

 were very prudent little fellows, and were fully conscious that 

 "he who fights and runs away will live to fight another day." 

 In fact, after two weeks of hard fighting we were unable to 

 discover one wounded warrior. When the males are approach- 

 ing each other, they hold the first legs up in a vertical direction. 

 Sometimes they drop the body on to one side as they jump 

 about each other. These movements are very quick, and they 



