1969] 
Levi and Levi — Sicarius 
39 
Fig. 15. Sicarius sp. mating on 13 June. The male has been illustrated 
black, the female white. The drawing was made from a photograph. 
(Fig. 14). Some that had left the eggcase in the morning were 
feeding on drosophila flies by early afternoon. The young, about 2.5 
mm long, at first looked skinny, but soon filled out. By the following 
day no more young were seen to emerge. The plastic cage was jarred 
to make the spiderlings emerge from the sand, and about forty spider- 
lings were counted. The eggcase was examined. In it were 10 shrivel- 
led eggs that had not hatched and numerous exuviae. Many exuviae 
had an egg membrane attached. Apparently the young left the eggs, 
molted, and then made the hole and emerged. The eggcase had no 
silk lining but under the lid a few silk threads crossed. Apparently, 
after the cup was finished (Fig. 4) and filled with eggs, the eggs were 
secured by a few silk strands before the lid was constructed. The silk 
strands might also support the masonry lid. The contents of the 
second eggcase proved to be infertile and did not hatch. 
During construction of the eggcase, on June 13 at about 4 p.m. 
(16 h) the female was observed mating. The constancy of mating 
position within spider families was discussed in a previous paper and 
the pair observed mating was the same one photographed mating 
previously (fig. 1, Levi, 1968). During the first matings observed, 
the female had been turned over with her abdomen in horizontal 
position, in the mating observed now, perhaps because of obstructions, 
the abdomen was vertical, the cephalothorax of the female still bent, 
but now horizontal over the male and the male was at an angle near 
vertical to the female (Fig. 15). The differences in positions of 
different matings of the same pair were as great as those puzzling 
differences observed by Dabelow (1958) in individuals of Scytodes 
thoracica coming from different parts of Europe. 
