32 4 
Psyche 
[December 
Then with a sudden movement the male turned the female into mat- 
ing position, clamping her down with his legs (Fig. i), and both 
pedipalps were inserted immediately (at 15:35). The pedipalps 
“wiggled” slightly. Once in a while the female made a slight motion 
(Fig. 1). After 18 minutes (15:53) the animals suddenly separated, 
the female moved about 7 cm to the side and rapidly dug herself in. 
The male stood for about 30 seconds, then moved off about 20 cm 
and buried himself. 
On 17 Setpember 1967, at 20:00, the same male was placed with 
the same female again. He moved slowly about, but stopped when 
he touched the partly exposed abdomen of the female. Suddenly he 
pulled her out of the sand sideways; the female did not resist. The 
male went through the same motions described above. For a short 
time before turning the female on her back the front ends of the 
male’s and female’s carapaces touched. The spiders separated 30 
minutes after starting copulation, moved in opposite directions, but 
did not bury themselves (perhaps due to relative darkness). Unfor- 
tunately no movie camera was available to record the sequence. 
SPERM INDUCTION 
The night following the first mating, neither of the mated spiders 
appeared active. Both remained buried. At 22 :30 the following 
night (21 July 1967), I was surprised to find the male hanging in 
a web, for I had not seen any use of spinnerets or silk before. The web 
consisted of very coarse strands of unequal widtfy diagonally from 
the side to the lid of the container, attached below to a vertical card- 
board partition, above by several threads to the screen lid. The 
threads, later examined under the microscope, consisted of at least 
10 strands matted together into a ribbon, flat in places. The male 
was hanging head up (Fig. 2), and the alternate forward and back 
movements of his pedipalps suggested that this might be the sperm 
web. A minute later the spider slid down and both pedipalps touched 
a yellowish-white droplet at the junction of the silk threads (Fig. 3). 
Both pedipalps touched the droplet at the same time, but did not 
move at all. The lights were turned on without apparently disturbing 
the spider (previous observations had been made with a. dim flash- 
light). An attempt to lift the lid (at 22:45), with the hope of 
photographing, however, disturbed the silk threads. The spider 
jumped down onto the sand and buried himself. The lack of threads 
with other males suggests that the web was destroyed and eaten after 
use. 
