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; she moves slowly under him, he crawling over her head, and the mating is accomplished.”

The same author thus describes the courtship of Dendryphantes elegans:  “While from three to five inches distant from her, he begins to wave his plumy first legs in a way that reminds one of a windmill.  She eyes him fiercely, and he keeps at a proper distance for a long time.  If he comes close she dashes at him, and he quickly retreats.  Sometimes he becomes bolder, and when within an inch, pauses, with the first legs outstretched before him, not raised as is common in other species; the palpi also are held stiffly out in front with the points together.  Again she drives him off, and so the play continues.  Now the male grows excited as he approaches her, and while still several inches away, whirls completely around and around; pausing, he runs closer and begins to make his abdomen quiver as he stands on tiptoe in front of her.  Prancing from side to side, he grows bolder and bolder, while she seems less fierce, and yielding to the excitement, lifts up her magnificently iridescent abdomen, holding it at one time vertical, and at another sideways to him.  She no longer rushes at him, but retreats a little as he approaches.  At last he comes close to her, lying flat, with his first legs stretched out and quivering.  With the tips of his front legs he gently pats her; this seems to arouse the old demon of resistance, and she drives him back.  Again and again he pats her with a caressing movement, gradually creeping nearer and nearer, which she now permits without resistance, until he crawls over her head to her abdomen, far enough to reach the epigynum with his palpus.” (G.W.  Peckham, “Sexual Selection of Spiders,” Occasional Papers of the Natural History Society of Wisconsin, 1889, quoted in Nature, August 21, 1890.)

The courtship of another spider, the Agelena labyrinthica, has been studied by Lecaillon ("Les Instincts et les Psychismes des Araignees,” Revue Scientifique, Sept. 15, 1906.) The male enters the female’s web and may be found there about the middle of July.  When courtship has begun it is not interrupted by the closest observation, even under the magnifying glass.  At first it is the male which seeks to couple and he pursues the female over her web till she consents.  The pursuit may last some hours, the male agitating his abdomen in a peculiar way, while the female simply retreats a short distance