The Courtship of Animals

by W. P. Pycraft

If the mating period in the case of the higher animals rouses the males to the pitch of frenzy, that frenzy is dangerous only to possible rivals. With the more lowly Spiders and Scorpions ferocity of disposition is a normal feature, and one which can with difficulty be held in check long enough to permit the all-important act of mating to take place. In how far this is accounted for by the extremely deficient senses of sight and hearing, which are such marked features in these animals, it would be difficult to estimate. But that the manner of their display is governed by these deficiencies there can be no doubt. The Spider, having a more or less efficient vision at short range, executes more or less elaborate antics in front of the female, designed, as in the case of the birds, to serve as excitants to fan sexual desire, already smouldering, to a flame. With the purblind Scorpion the Spider-antics are useless; he must proclaim his desire by a pressure of the hand, and by intertwining his tail with that of his prospective mate as they “walk out” together. But Scorpions at one time were credited with a very acute sense of hearing; later investigations, however, fail to yield any evidence whatever that they possess this sense, though experiment has proved that their sense of touch is excessively delicate and seems to reside in the hairs which are thickly distributed over the legs and body. Now, hearing and touch are senses near akin, and the vibrations produced by stridulation may be, and probably are, received by, and interpreted through, the medium of these hairs. For though the Scorpion may not respond to sounds made by curious investigators, it may be that they can perceive notes of a low pitch imperceptible to our ears, such as are made by stridulating organs, as in the case of the Spiders.

Perchance certain comb-like structures known as the “pectines” may play a part in mate-hunting. These are placed on either side of the under-surface of the body between the last two pairs of legs. The fact that they are larger in the male, and sometimes strangely modified in the female, seems to show that they have some function in relation to sex. They also appear to serve as sources of information as to the nature of the ground traversed by the animal, since they are long in species which walk with the body raised high off the ground and short in such as adopt a more grovelling posture. That the Scorpions possess but a very limited means of gleaning information of the outer world there can be no doubt. How, then, do they find one another when that insistent desire to mate begins to make itself felt? Are the “pectines” their informants through the sense of smell? Do the hairs scattered over the body act as sound-collectors responding to the notes emitted by the stridulating organs? These are points on which information is much to be desired.

Plate 36.

Photo by P. H. Fabre.

DEATH OF THE MALE SCORPION.

But by the time the nuptial rites have been performed the female has thrown off her “sweetness,” and ends by eating her lover!

[Face page 254.

Plate 37.