MATING HABITS 38 I 



legs, and apparently trying to ascertain the nature of the welcome 

 likely to be extended to them. If accepted, they accomplish 

 their purpose by applying their palps alternately to the epigyne 

 of their mate. If repulsed, they do their best to make their 

 escape, and wait for a more auspicious moment. Emerton ^ says : 

 " In these encounters the males are often injured ; they frequently 

 lose some of their legs ; and I have seen one, that had only four 

 out of his eight left, still standing up to his work." 



Among the other groups of sedentary spiders the relations 

 between the sexes seem to be more pacific, and there is even 

 some approach to domesticity. Males and females of Linyphia 

 may be found during the mating season living happily together 

 in their irregular snares. The same harmony seems to exist 

 among the Tube-weavers, and Agelena labyrinthica lingers for 

 days unmolested about the web of the female, though it is perhaps 

 hardly correct to say that they have their home in common. 



Among the wandering spiders the male usually seeks out the 

 female and leaps on her back, from which position his sperm- 

 laden palps can reach their destination. This is the habit of 

 the Thomisidae or Crab-spiders, and of the quick-running Wolf- 

 spiders, or Lycosidae. 



The sexual relations of the Leaping-spiders, or Attidae, are so 

 remarkable as to deserve a longer notice. This Family includes 

 the most beautiful and highly ornamented examples of spider 

 life. Their headquarters are the 

 tropics, and their brilliant colour- 

 ing led Wallace to speak of those 

 he saw in the Malay Archipelago 

 as " perfect gems of beauty." 



Now among these spiders the 

 male is almost always more highly 

 decorated than the female, and 

 Peckham's observations would lead 

 to the conclusion that the female 

 is influenced by the display of these 

 decorations in the selection of her ' ~3x. — ^ "^^ 



.^ i. Fig. 199. — Male Astia vittata dancing 



, , „ „ before the female. (After Peckham.) 



The so-called " love-dances 01 

 certain tropical birds are known to all readers of natural history, 

 1 Spiders, their Structure and Habits, 1883, p. 98. 



