How glad, and more than glad, would Darwin have been to have read the tale of these spiders! It is, indeed, one of those ironies of fate, of which the world is so full, that he did not live to see this demonstration—for it is no less—of the truth of his most original and elevating views; elevating they may be well called, since they allow to the animal world an æsthetic faculty, the power, once thought exclusively human, of appreciating beauty. It is curious how willing many are to exalt humanity at the expense of all other beings. The higher faculties they like, and perception of the beautiful they like, and spirituality—especially in love—they like very much indeed; but they only like these things in their own species. That is to say, conceit lies at the bottom of all this exaltation. Such man-worshippers would not have more of a good thing in the world, but less, so that they may have all there is of it. On such grounds the war against evolution was waged, and its last struggles are against sexual selection. The body has been given up, but the spirit, which touches us yet more nearly, is still fiercely defended.

In Hasarius Hoyi “the sexes are very different, the male being the more conspicuous of the two. In his dances, the male has several movements. Most commonly he goes from side to side, with his first legs obliquely up. At other times he twists the abdomen to one side, and, bending low on the other, goes first in one direction for about two inches, and then, reversing, circles to the opposite point. The females are very savage, especially with each other, and even the members of the sterner sex are not always free from danger when paying their preparatory addresses. Once we saw a female eagerly watching a prancing male, and, as he slowly approached her, she raised her legs as if to strike him, but he, nothing daunted by her unkindly reception of his attentions, advanced even nearer, when she seized him and seemed to hold him by the head for a minute—he struggling. At last he freed himself and ran away.”[[133]] Yet “this same male, after a time, courted her successfully.” That so much savagery has to be overcome in the female, and finally is overcome by these dances, shows how powerfully she must be affected by them. Of another and previously undescribed species, “a dozen or more males, and about half as many females,” were found by the authors “assembled together” under natural conditions. “The males were rushing hither and thither, dancing opposite now one female and now another. Often two males met each other, when a short passage of arms followed. The males were very quarrelsome, and had frequent fights, but we never found that they were injured. Indeed, after having watched hundreds of seemingly terrible battles between the males of this and other species, the conclusion has been forced upon us that they are all sham affairs, gotten up for the purpose of displaying before the females, who commonly stand by, interested spectators.”[[133]]

Then there is a small ant-like species, who, “unlike most of the Attid males, keeps all his feet on the ground during his courtship. Raising himself on the tips of the posterior six, he slightly inclines his head downwards by bending his front legs, their convex surface being always turned forward. His abdomen is lifted vertically, so that it is at a right angle to the rest of his body. In this position he sways from side to side. After a moment he drops the abdomen, runs a few steps nearer the female, and then tips his body and begins to sway again. Now he runs in one direction, now in another, pausing every few moments to rock from side to side and to bend his brilliant legs, so that she may look full at them.”[[133]] What can be clearer than this? And here, indeed, the authors remark: “We were much impressed by the fact that the attitude taken by the males served perfectly to show off their fine points to the female. We had never known the male of this species until the day that we caught this one and put him into the mating-box, and it was while studying his courtship that we noticed how he differed from the female in his iridescent first legs. He could not have chosen a better position than the one he took to make a display.”[[133]]

Elsewhere, in another experiment with the same species, the authors, after remarking that if these specially modified front legs were held in any other way the effect of the flattened and iridescent surface would be lost, go on to say: “This is a good example of what we have again and again observed in the courtship of the Attidæ: that whatever fine points of colour or structure the male possesses, his actions before the female display them to the very best advantage. In whatever part the special merit may lie, he sedulously strives to bring it to the notice and impress its beauty upon the mind of the female to whom he is paying his addresses.”[[133]] As for the female, she is throughout described as watching the male eagerly and with the greatest interest, and that this interest is not always felt from the first, but is aroused by degrees, becoming, at last, so strong as to suspend for a time the natural inclination to assault and eat the wooer, is all the more significant. That there are dangers in these courtships there has been some indication, “but worse remains behind.” Phidippus rufus was caught once and eaten in an unguarded moment, and whilst Phidippus morsitans was waving his particularly handsome first pair of legs, “thickly adorned with white hairs,” precisely the same thing happened to him. Still, on the whole, such incidents are exceptional.

Particularly interesting is the account given of the courtship of Saitis pulex, a male of which species was introduced into a box already occupied by a female. “He saw her as she stood perfectly still, twelve inches away; the glance seemed to excite him, and he moved towards her; when some four inches from her he stood still, and then began the most remarkable performances that an amorous male could offer to an admiring female. She eyed him eagerly, changing her position from time to time, so that he might be always in view. He, raising his whole body on one side, by straightening out the legs, and lowering it on the other by folding the first two pairs of legs up and under, leant so far over as to be in danger of losing his balance, which he only maintained by sidling rapidly towards the lowered side. The palpus, too, on this side, was turned back to correspond to the direction of the legs nearest it. He moved in a semicircle for about two inches, and then instantly reversed the position of the legs and circled in the opposite direction, gradually approaching nearer and nearer to the female. Now she dashes towards him, while he, raising his first pair of legs, extends them upward and forward as if to hold her off, but withal slowly retreats. Again and again he circles from side to side, she gazing towards him in a softer mood, evidently admiring the grace of his antics. This is repeated until we have counted one hundred and eleven circles made by the ardent little male. Now he approaches nearer and nearer, and when almost within reach, whirls madly around and around her, she joining and whirling with him in a giddy maze. Again he falls back and resumes his semicircular motions with his body tilted over; she, all excitement, lowers her head and raises her body so that it is almost vertical; both draw nearer”[[133]]—and the male, now, for some short period is in no danger of being eaten.

Lastly—for this must be the last example—we have a species—Astia vittata—in which the male is represented by two differing forms, each of which dances before the female in its own particular way. One of these forms is red, like the female, which he resembles in other respects, so that this must be taken as the original specific type. The other, which has evidently been developed from it, in deference to the æsthetic preferences of the female, is black, with the special adornment of three tufts of hair on his head, or thereabouts, that part of a spider which is termed the cephalothorax. These tufts stick bolt upright, rising together, but separating about half-way up, and give to their fortunate possessor—for, as we shall see, he is fortunate—a very spruce and dapper appearance. Looked at dispassionately, if one can do that, they are certainly as handsome as moustaches, and there is no reason in the nature of things why they should not be admired as much. So, indeed, they are, and that the admiration bestowed upon each is of an equally high nature I, at any rate, see no reason to doubt.

The following description will show what a spider with moustaches can achieve: “The vittata form, which is quite like the female, when he approaches her raises his first legs either so that they point forward or upward, keeping his palpi stiffly outstretched, while the tip of his abdomen is bent to the ground. This position he commonly takes when three or four inches away. While he retains this attitude he keeps curving and waving his legs in a very curious manner. Frequently he raises only one of the legs of the first pair, running all the time from side to side. As he draws nearer to the female he lowers his body to the ground, and, dropping his legs also, places the two anterior pairs so that the tips touch in front, the proximal joints being turned almost at a right angle to the body. Now he glides in a semicircle before the female, sometimes advancing, sometimes receding, until at last she accepts his addresses. The niger form, evidently a later development, is much the more lively of the two, and whenever the two varieties were seen to compete for a female the black one was successful.”[[133]]

Here, surely, is a final answer to those assertions as to indifference on the part of the female, which, though made in the teeth of probability, are often, on account of the difficulties of observation, almost impossible to disprove. Here are two kinds of males, one lively and with moustaches, the other not so lively and without them; as the first is always, or even, say, generally chosen, his appearance must be preferred. Were it only his liveliness, as Dr. Wallace has suggested, why should he have acquired another dress as well as another dance? or, if the female can have a choice as between liveliness and slowness, as between a jig and a minuet, why, in Heaven’s name, should she not have one as between one get-up and another? Sexual selection might, I think, be put to the test in this one species with its two male forms. Let but a sufficient number of courtships be observed and reported on, and if niger, in a large percentage of them, wins the day, choice on the part of the female—the only link in the chain of evidence which it is at all possible to deny—is a proved thing.

But to continue: “He—niger—is bolder in his manners (no wonder he prevails), and we have never seen him assume the prone position, as the red form did, when close to the female. He always held one or both of the first legs high in the air, waving them wildly to and fro; or when the female became excited, he stood perfectly motionless before her, sometimes for a whole minute, seeming to fascinate her by the power of his glance”[[133]]—greatly aided probably by the three tufts of hair showing through the archway of the uplifted legs. Here, again, too, as in some of the other species—perhaps all—“although the males were continually waving their first legs at each other, their quarrels were harmless. It was quite otherwise with the females, since they not only kept the other sex in awe of them, but not infrequently in their battles killed each other.”[[133]] As the males cannot win the females by fighting, what have they to contend with effectively except these curious, elaborate, and most interesting displays, the purpose of which is so excessively obvious? On the other hand, the fact that the females yield, almost against their nature, to these displays, that they are slowly and gradually won through their means, is proof positive that they like them, and if so, how is it possible that they should not like one more or less than another? What, in fact, is choice but a greater or less reaction to this stimulus or to that? The initial absurdity of laying claim to a monopoly of such a capacity as this, either in our matrimonial affairs, or any other matter in which animals participate, has not been sufficiently dwelt upon.

Professor Poulton, in considering this case of Astra vittata with its two male forms, one of which is always chosen by the female in preference to the other, remarks (with his own italics), “It must be admitted that these facts afford the strongest support to the theory of Sexual Selection.”[[134]] He thus endorses—as anyone, I think, not hard-set the other way, must endorse—the opinion of the authors of the paper that “in the Attidæ we have conclusive evidence that the females pay close attention to the love dances of the males, and also that they have not only the power, but the will, to exercise a choice among the suitors for their favour,”[[135]] to which he adds this rider: “Remembering that this conclusion has only been reached in the Attidæ by the closest study, I think we may safely explain the smaller confidence with which we can speak of other animals by the want of sufficiently careful and systematic investigation.”