594 



ever heen able really to observe any direct connexion between these 

 organs. Van Hasselt ') considers, that he cannot indeed question 

 the truth of Menge's statements, but thinks that no general theory 

 for the fertilization of spiders can be based upon them. He appears 

 accordingly to suppose, that in some spiders the testes have their 

 outlets under the belly and in others into the palpi, a view, which, 

 considering the very great uniformity generally found in the organi- 

 zation of spiders, and what we up to the present time know con- 

 cerning the structure of their organs of generation, appears to me 

 in the highest degree improbable. — That the transmission of the 

 sperma to the palpi always takes place in the manner directly ob- 

 served by Menge in the case of Agalena and Linyphia, that is, 

 so, that the male spider, before the coition, emits from the sexual 

 aperture a drop of sperma on a kind of small web made for the 

 purpose, which drop he then takes up in the genital bulbs of the 

 palpi, is indeed not proved, and it is not improbable that the 

 male sometimes applies the genital bulbs to the sexual aperture, 

 and thus charges them with the fertilizing fluid. Menge himself 

 seems to suspect such to be the case with "Lycosa rurestvis n 2 ) 

 (= Trochosa ruricola (De Geeb)?). That the transfer of the semen 

 has been so seldom observed, may arise from many circumstances, 

 f. inst. that it takes place very rapidly, or long before copulation, 

 sometimes perhaps immediately after the last change of the skin. 



Heeman 3 ) has written a paper "on the genital organ of the 

 Epeira quadrata", in which Menge's observations are quite incorrectly 

 set forth and then even ridiculed' 1 ). Heeman imagines, that Menge 

 supposes the male spiders to draw the sperma from the genital 



1) Waarneming der Copulatie bij eene der kleinsten spinsoorten etc., in 

 Tijdschr. voor Entom., XVI, p. 6. 



2) "Nach dem Absteigen [after tbe coition] streicht es [the male] seine 

 Taster-Kolben unter der Brust durch mehrere Malen an der Offnung der Sanien- 

 Bliischen arn Anfange des Hinterleibes , und bringt so wahrscheinlich den Samen 

 hinein". Menge, Ueber die Lebensweise d. Arachn. , p. 43. 



3; Heeman, TJeb. das Sexualorgan der Ep. quadrata, in Verhandl. d. zool.- 

 bot. Gesellsch. in Wien, XVIII (1868), pp. 923 et seq. 



4) So for instance: ''In neuerer Zeit mochte dieser Autor [Menge] wohl die 

 Beobachtung machen , dass der Palpus manclier Arten viel zu kurz ist , urn damit 

 den Baucb bequem zu erreichen und will nun weiter beobachtet haben, dass das 

 $ in einem Winkel einige Faden ziehe und mit Hilfe derselben den Hinterleib 

 mit Gewalt so weit vorwarts biege, bis der Palpus den Samenleiter erreicht!! r Her- 

 man, 1. c, p. 926 (4). — Of what Menge really had observed, Heeman has no idea. 



