PAIEING or TEQENABIA GIJTONII. 165 



Immediately after the spider was secured, one of its palpi was 

 removed. The vesiculum seminis was charged with spermatozoa 

 even to the embolos (figs.l, 2, 3, and 4, E), where they were 

 plainly seen at intervals (fig. 4, 8pe). I. could not, however, 

 discover any on the external parts of the palpus. 



I have been unable to gather from the accounts of other spe- 

 cies any idea of the motion of the palpi in collecting the semen, 

 except that in some cases they were alternately applied. The 

 large spoon-shaped cavity of the palpi (figs. 1 and 2, A) of Tege- 

 naria Ckiyonii renders this point of interest. These organs were 

 placed under the silken sheet ; and their movements were like those 

 of a hand under a network striving to secure any substance which 

 was there by causing it to fall through the meshes. It seemed 

 as if the semen were being shaken into the cavity A previous to 

 its collection by the embolos, the concave spatulated opening of 

 which (figs. 3 and 4) is well adapted for the entrance*. 



The Pawing. — This species, according to Blackwell ( = :?'. do- 

 mestica, Blackw., British Spiders, p. 164) and Simon {=T.parie- 

 tina, Frc, ' Les Arachnides de France,' vol. ii. p. 61), pair in May, 

 It is of course possible that broods may overlap each other, or 

 that locality may alter the season ; but if I may judge from the 

 number of individuals which arrive at maturity in this neigh- 

 bourhood during July and August, the comparative frequency of 

 wandering males in that period and their scarcity in May, I 

 must call the end of summer the height of the breeding-season. 

 The eggs are laid the following spring. 



I observed thirteen couples pairing in confinement from the 

 middle of July to the end of August ; and the following account 

 may be taken as typical of the species, with this exception, that 

 the union does not necessarily occur so quickly after the female 

 has gained maturity. 



On the 13th of August I placed together a male and a female. 

 On the l7th the latter cast her last skin. Up to that time, 

 6 A.M., they had taken no notice of one another. At 9.45 p.m. 

 the two were so close together that the femora of the first pair 

 of legs of each were almost in contact. After a few convulsive 

 twitches of the legs, the male pressed forwards, moving his palpi 



* Menge ('Preussische Spinnen,'p. 25) has seen, in the cases of Linyphia, 

 Agalena, Lycosa, the semen collected from the sheet by structures analogous to 

 the cavity A, and called by him the spermophorum. 



