No. 1.] SEXUAL SELECTION IN SPIDERS. 55 



and habits, we should not be surprised at finding like differ- 

 ences between distinct varieties. 



The verjr meager knowledge that we have of the mating 

 habits of the Erpeiridse has been gained at the expense of num- 

 erous hours of watching. The courtship of Attidx is often very- 

 tedious, but it does not compare in this respect with that of the 

 Epeiridie, perhaps because the members of the former family 

 are constantly in motion and thus hold out a hope to the ob- 

 server that he is going to see something worth seeing, while 

 the orb- weavers make nothing of remaining motionless for six 

 or eight hours at a stretch; the observer, in the meantime, be- 

 ing afraid to let his attention flag 

 for a moment lest he lose some 

 small but significant movement 

 on their part. We have watched 

 the males and females of several 

 species, but our only notes per- 

 tain to two species of Argiope, 

 cophinaria and fasciata, in which 

 the males are much smaller than 

 the females. In the mating sea- 

 son each female has three or four Fig. TT.-Astir^ttlta, var. niger. 



™ ., T,,i T 1 • Position ol' male approaching female 



01 these iittie males hanging (from nature, by l. k.). 

 about the outskirts of her web. 



In cophinaria, when two of these males meet, they throw 

 up their first legs and back away from each other, without 

 striking or clinching as in the Attidse, and then one of them 

 drops at the end of a line. When advancing toward the 

 female, the male seems to pause and pull at the strands of web, 

 as though to notify her of his approach. When he comes 

 toward her from in front she imparts a slight motion to the 

 web with her legs, which seems to serve as a warning, as he 

 either moves away or drops out of the web. When he comes 

 from behind she pays no attention to him until he begins to 

 creep on to her body, when she slowly raises one of her long 

 legs and unceremoniously brushes him off. 



