WOOING AND MATING. 33 



Combativeness among spiders is not limited to males; the females also 

 fight, and with great ferocity, not only with one another, but with the op- 

 posite sex. Professor and Mrs. Peckham have contributed to our 

 Combat- l*^"owledge of this trait as displayed by females among the At- 

 iveness. ^^(^^, to which brilliant family their studies have been chiefly 

 directed. They found that the females are, with few exceptions, 

 larger, stronger, and much more pugnacious than the males. They placed 

 two females of Phidippus morsitans together in a glass jar. No sooner 

 did they observe each other than both prepared for battle.' Eyeing one 

 another with a firm glance, they slowly approached, and in a moment were 

 locked in deadly combat. Within a few seconds the cephalothorax of one 

 was pierced by the fang of the other, and with a convulsive tremor it re- 

 laxed its hold and fell dead. In all, four females were placed together, 

 and in each instance the fight was short, but to the death. Subsequently, 

 the observers admitted a well developed male, which, though smaller, was 

 compactly built and apparently strong enough to bring the virago to terms; 

 but, to their surprise, he seemed alarmed and retreated, trying to avoid 

 her; she, however, followed him up, and finally killed him. They ob- 

 served the same habits in Phidippus rufus. 



In Dendryphantes elegans the female is nearly a third larger than the 

 male. A number of this species, males and females, were kept together in 

 a large mating box, and their behavior demonstrated the greater 

 some'^^ ' *lu^i'i'*^lsomeness of the females ; they would frequently go out of 

 Females. *^i^"' ^'^^y ^^ chase one another, and they were much more cir- 

 cumspect in approaching each other than were the males. In 

 Icius mitratus neither sex was especially pugnacious, but the male was as 

 little so as the female. In Synageles picata the females never came near 

 each other without some display of hostility, though they did not actually 

 fight. In several species of Xysticus, as ferox and gulosus, the females 

 are savage and ready to attack anything that comes in their way, while 

 the males are smaller and more peaceable. ^ 



VII. 



From these more general facts we may now pass to the detailed descrip- 

 tions of the act of conjugation in such species as have been studied. I have 

 never been fortunate enough to observe the actual pairing of Orbweavers, 

 my only opportunities of study having been with Linyphia marginata and 

 Agalena najvia. I am therefore dependent upon the observations of others 

 for the pairing habits of the Orbweavers. 



Termeyer, nearly a century ago, thus correctly noted some points in the 



' Observations on Sexual Selection in Spiders of the Family Attidce, by George W. and 

 Elizabeth G. Peckham, pages 10, 11. 



