1973] 
Ramousse — A raneus diadematus 
25 
Figure 1. Outline of a male (left) and a female (right). Note the 
difference of size (female front leg: 16 mm, male front leg: 12 mm), of 
weight (female: 144.1 mg, male: 47.0 mg) and the difference of form of 
the palps (short and enlarged for the male, long and thin for the female). 
not spin a web after its last molt, and that the aggregate glands 
become vestigial in the adult males. Prior to this point the involve- 
ment of the aggregate glands in the formation of the catching area 
of a web was clearly shown (Peakall, 1964). We may suppose that 
adult males are unable to spin webs because their aggregate glands 
are no longer functional. 
The males ate scarcely, even when we attempted to induce prey 
catching by placing the flies in front of their mouths. While an 
immature male transformed a fly into a small compact ball through 
eating; the different parts of the body of a fly abandoned after eating 
by a mature male were easily recognizable. Even when they ate, the 
mature males used only a small amount of the food available. Males 
of Linyphia triangularis Clerck did not require food in the adult 
stage, and were still able to mate with females that later produced 
fertile eggs. When these males were provided with food, the rate of 
prey capture and the rate of food consumption dropped sharply 
