No. 1.] SEXUAL SELECTION IN SPIDERS- 51 



The addition to tlie company of a number of nearly mature 

 females considerably increased this tendency to quarrelsome- 

 ness, the males thereafter spending all the time that they 

 spared from courtship in fighting. In approaching the female 

 they seemed very eager, and fairly quivered with excitement. 

 The first two legs were raised over the head and curved toward 

 each other, so that the tips nearly met and the palpi were moved 

 up and down. (Fig. 24.) One of them 

 was much larger than any of the others, 

 and from the first showed plainly that he 

 had a strong sense of his own superiority. 

 He drove all the others about at his pleas- 

 ure, constantly interrupting their attempts 

 at courtship. This big fellow seemed to 

 be especially attractive to the females, of 

 which there were always two or three 

 standing in an admiring circle around j,jg 24.-Phiteus miu- 

 him. When he approached them, however, app?oaoWng lemaie (S 

 they slipped away. After a time, he singled °^*"'^®' y • • • 

 out the largest of the females, half coaxed and half drove her 

 into a corner, and there kept her secluded, chasing away every 

 spider that approached, irrespective of sex. He once interrupted 

 a courtship which was going on six inches away, driving the male 

 to a distance and then pursuing the female for a long time. 

 This seclusion of the female was kept up until evening of the 

 next day — a period of twenty-four hours — but on the following 

 morning the pair had separated and he was hidden among 

 some leaves. None of the females were yet mature. We now 

 put into the box another male, which was nearly as large as 

 the first. This second one adopted the same bullying manner 

 to the smaller members of his sex that the first had done. 

 After driving them about for a time, he secured a gnat, and 

 was peacefully devouring it, when number one emerged from 

 the leaves, caught sight of the new-comer, and at once 

 approached, bristling with pride and ire, his first legs raised 

 high, as if to strike, his palpi vibrating with excitement, and 



