The so-called “love-dances” of certain tropical birds are known to all readers of natural history, but it was hardly to be expected that their counterpart would exist among spiders. Yet the antics by which male Attidae endeavour to attract the attention of the females afford an almost exact parallel.
The following extract from the account of Professor and Mrs. Peckham[[305]] of their observations on Saitis pulex will make this abundantly clear: “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, leaned so far over as to be in danger of losing his balance, which he only maintained by sidling rapidly towards the lowered side.... 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 a 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 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; she moves slowly under him, he crawling over her head, and the mating is accomplished.”
Fig. [200].—Dancing attitude of male Icius mitratus. (After Peckham.)
A similar but not exactly identical performance was gone through by the male of several different species, but it was noteworthy that the particular attitudes he adopted were always such as to display to the best advantage his special beauties, whether they consisted in crested head, fringed palpi and fore-legs, or iridescent abdomen. Sometimes even such exertions failed to captivate the female, and she would savagely attack the male, occasionally with fatal effect.
In the case of some species, when the male had won the consent of his mate, he would weave a small nuptial tent or web, into which he would partly lead and partly drive the female, who no longer offered serious resistance.
Fossil Spiders.
About 250 species of fossil spiders have been discovered. Of these about 180 are embedded in amber, a fossil resinous substance which exuded from ancient coniferous trees, and quantities of which are annually washed up from the Baltic upon the shores of northern Prussia.
The most ancient fossil spider known was obtained from the argillaceous slate of Kattowitz in Silesia, and belongs, therefore, to the Carboniferous strata of the Palaeozoic epoch. It has been named Protolycosa anthrocophila. There is some doubt as to the affinities of this spider. Roemer, who described it, placed it among the Citigradae, while others have thought it to belong rather to the Territelariae. Thorell, on account of its agreement in certain important points with the very curious recent Malay spider Liphistius, has placed them both in a separate sub-family, Liphistioidae. To the same epoch belongs the American fossil spider Arthrolycosa antiqua, which was found in the Coal measures of Illinois.
The other localities from which fossil spiders have been obtained are the Swiss Miocene at Oeningen, the Oligocene deposits at Aix, the Oligocene of Florissant, Colorado, Green River, Wyoming, and Quesnel, British Columbia.