6
the summer, running through the grass with pale-
coloured egg cocoons attached to their abdomens
by the spinnerets.
Silk is used in different ways in spider court-
ship and mating. Courtship is a fascinating
aspect of spider behaviour and well worth the
spending of a few minutes observation if
encountered in the field. Before going in
search of a mate a male spider spins a tiny
web on which he places a droplet of sperm from
the genital opening on his abdomen. He then
takes up the sperm into his palps, a pair of
specially modified appendages in front of the
first pair of legs. In a successful mating these
palps are applied in turn to the female epigyne.
the external genital organ on the underside of
the abdomen, and the sperm are transferred
Contrary to popular belief, not many female
spiders eat their mates. If the male makes the
right signals and judges the female's receptivity
correctly he can usually succeed in mating with
her, even if this entails a quick getaway after-
wards. Some male spiders go to seemingly extra-
ordinary lengths to ensure recognition by the
female. The jumping spiders (Salticidae) of
which the zebra spider is perhaps best known, use
a system of ritual leg-waving and body movements
that at times resemble something between a
cha-cha and a semaphore message. These
movements are usually made even more spectacular
by the richly-coloured, often irridescent hairs
on the front legs and palps and around the eyes.
Other male spiders use less subtle means.
Pisaura mirabilis wards off an attack by the
female by presenting her with a previously caught
and silk-wrapped fly to take her mind off her
hunger while he gets down to the real business
in hand. Xysticus cristatus, one of the aptly
named "crab spiders", ties his prospective mate