COURTSHIP AND MATING OF SPIDERS 167 
Again and again he circles from side to side, she gazing towards 
him in a softer mood, evidently admiring the grace of his antics. 
This is repeated until we have counted 111 circles made by the 
ardent little male. Now he approaches nearer and nearer, and 
when almost within reach, whirls madly around and around her, 
she joining and whirling with him in a giddy maze.” One feels 
quite glad to hear that the suit of this particular male was suc- 
cessful. He was decidedly in luck, for we learn that the females 
Fig. 1122.—Courtship Attitudes of Male Spiders, enlarged. a, Satis pulex, dancing. B, Habrocestum splendens 
approaching female. cand p, Red and black varieties of A stia vittata in approaching attitudes. 
of his species are very fastidious, and frequently turn admirers 
away. 
A number of males often compete for the good graces of a 
single female in some of the species observed, in which case the 
latter takes some time to make up her mind. Competing wooers 
from time to time interrupt their antics to tussle with one another. 
Boldness or persistence sometimes wins the day. The male of 
one species (Dendryphantes capitatus) may frisk around for hours 
displaying his special beauties, until ‘at last the female, either 
won by his beauty or worn out by his persistence, accepts his 
addresses”. And in another form (Hasarius Hoyt) a male was 
brave enough to walk up to an evidently displeased female, 
“when she seized him and seemed to hold him by the head for 
