The Study of Animal Life 



PART I 



many cases ; while the fact that the males of these spiders are 

 always more brilliant than their mates suggests again that the 

 brilliancy is wrapped up along with the mystery of maleness, which 

 it is not sufficient to define merely as superabundant vitality, or as 

 greater activity, but rather as a tendency towards a relative increase 

 of destructive or disruptive vital changes over those which are 

 constructive or conservative. But the problem is very complex, 

 and dogmatic conclusions are premature. We need to know 

 the chemical nature and history of the pigments to which the 

 colour is due ; we need to have an approximate balance-sheet 

 of the income and expenditure of the two sexes. Enough of this, 

 however ; let us return to the pictures. We talk about romance — 

 listen to these patient observers : 



Fig. 22. — Two male . spiders {Habrocestum splendens to the left, and Astia 

 mttata to the right) displaying themselves before their mates. (After 

 G. W. and E. G. Peckham.) 



" On reaching the country we found that the males of Saitis 

 pulex were mature and were waiting for the females, as is the way 

 with both spiders and insects. In this species there is but little 

 difference between the sexes. On May 24th we found a mature 

 female and placed her in one of the larger boxes, and the next day 

 we put a male in with her. He saw her as she stood perfectly 

 still, twelve inches away. The glance seemed to excite him, and 

 he at once moved toward her. When some four inches from her 

 he stood still, and then began the most remarkable performances 

 that an amorous male could offer to an admiring female. She eyed 

 him eagerly, changing her position from time to time, so that he 

 might always be in view. He, raising his whole body on one side 

 by straightening out the legs, and lowering it on the other by fold- 



