178 
Psyche 
[June 
Discussion 
Observations on the ontogeny of display in S. crassipes provide an 
interesting contrast with those of Koomans et al. (1974) for Pardosa 
spp., although certain similarities exist. For example, in both sexes 
of the Pardosa species, the pattern of leg wave behavior was gen- 
erally the same at all developmental stages, with the frequency 
decreasing rapidly at the adult molt. In S. crassipes leg waving 
patterns become increasingly stereotyped with age, but the frequency 
did not vary with age or decrease as the final molt neared. Blinded 
Pardosa showed relatively little leg wave behavior, similar to the 
lack of leg waving exhibited by socially isolated S. crassipes. Al- 
though both sexes of Pardosa spp. and S. crassipes exhibited leg 
waving, antepen- and penultimate male S. crassipes displayed sig- 
nificantly more than females. Of further interest were the findings 
that bouts of leg waving by males lasted longer and consisted of 
more waves than those exhibited by females. These findings, coupled 
with the observation that more males than females reached sexual 
maturity among socially grouped spiderlings, suggested that leg 
waving serves a communication function that becomes more sexually 
differentiated with age. This idea is consistent with Aspey’s (in 
preparation “a,” “b,” “c”) research that only adult males exhibit 
the highly complex agonistic display which serves to maintain domi- 
nance-subordinance relations and preserve inter-individual distances. 
The decrease in leg wave behavior concurrent with increased 
courtship by adult male P. lugubris and P. nigriceps suggested to 
Koomans et al. (1974) that the behavior was replaced by courtship. 
Analogously, leg wave behavior in adult females could be replaced 
by specific reactions to courtship. In immature S. crassipes leg 
waving may be homologous with the similar ipsilateral Prolonged 
Wave in adult males (Aspey, 1974, in preparation “a”). Although 
Prolonged Wave occurred infrequently in adults relative to the 
frequency of immature leg waving among socially grouped spider- 
lings, both behaviors occurred under similar circumstances (i.e., one 
spider approaching another from the front). These behaviors seemed 
to have similar behavioral consequences, that of increasing distance 
between two individuals and thwarting approaching conspecifics. 
Koomans et al. (1974) suggested that since leg wave behavior is 
similar in most Pardosa species observed, it may serve as a signal in 
agonistic encounters between individuals of different sympatric spe- 
cies, as well as between conspecifics. Just as one of the functions of 
courtship is the suppression of predatory tendencies, experimentally 
