CHAPTER XXII

Beautiful spiders—The “Peckham paper”—Spider courtship—Male antics and love-dances—Occasional accidents—Strength of the evidence—The one explanation—Darwin’s last words—His theory established.

SPIDERS, as we have seen, may attain beauty by getting more and more like flowers, but beauty is not the attribute with which they are principally connected in our minds. Rather they are a synonym of something uncouth and horrid-looking, as well as of skill and persevering industry. For those of us, however, who have lived in the tropics they have other associations, for here, side by side with the most hideous of monsters, huge, dark, and hairy, are found others, small and gem-like, flashing indeed with beauty, the representatives in their order of the humming-birds, those “living sunbeams” of the Indians, amongst birds. These lovely little spiders belong to a particular family, theAttidæ, which has been placed by common consent at the head of all the others, since, whilst structurally, and in other respects, it is inferior to none, “it contains among its 1,500 species the greatest amount of sexual differentiation and the highest development of ornamentation.” Dr. Wallace, after noticing “their immense numbers, variety, and beauty,” in tropical South America,says, “Many of them are so exquisitely coloured as to resemble jewels rather than spiders”;[130]and again, in his work on the Malay Archipelago, he alludes to them as “perfect gems of beauty.”[131]

These little radiant spiders live amongst flowers and foliage, and here they chase such small insects as their size allows them to cope with. Besides running, they make little leaps into the air, and so, if they can manage it, come down on their prey, for which reason they are often called “jumping spiders.” This is a very different mode of action from that of remaining perfectly still till a butterfly or other insect happens to settle on one, and it is accordingly instructive to find that, great as is the beauty of these flower-haunting spiders, yet it does not resemble that of the flowers amongst which it is displayed. The iridescent flashes and sparkles more resemble those of the mineral than of the vegetable world—where, indeed, they hardly exist—and must serve, as well as their active movements, to point them out to their enemies even amidst a background of flowers. It is not upon principles of protection, therefore, or to acquire a dissembling resemblance that such bright brilliancy has been developed in these little creatures.

Since, therefore, these spiders could not have become beautiful on any principle of protective or aggressive resemblance, nor yet of warning coloration, for which there would here be no opening, and had yet become beautiful in a high degree, they seemed to Professor and Mrs. Peckham to offer a good subject for the testing of the theory of sexual selection, and deciding as towhether Darwin or Wallace was right in that matter. After several months of careful, and often very laborious observation—rewarded, however, by the most interesting results—they have given their answer, and this answer, resting as it does on the most irrefragable evidence, should be decisive for all time. It may safely be asserted that anyone who, after reading the “Peckham paper,” as it may well be called, is not convinced both that the male spiders of this beautiful family woo the females by displaying their beauty before them, and that the females carefully watch the display, accepting only such as please them sufficiently and rejecting the others, never will be convinced, since only by the spiders actually speaking, which is not likely to happen, could the evidence be bettered. If, indeed, the female had been heard to say “Pretty i’ faith,” or “You are a fine young man,” just before her actions gave clear, or still clearer indication that this was in her mind, had she murmured “Take me” as she let herself be taken, and had the male asked, after the way common in novels, “Was it my abdomen or the stripes on my palpi that made you first fall in love with me?” then, perhaps, even those who believe that the higher spiritual love is for man alone would have been converted—and yet I know not, since assertions so unlikely in themselves might have flung doubt on the whole paper.

But, however this may be, the evidence now offered us in favour of Darwin’s views can never be strengthened except in this way, so that, as far as proof is possible in such a matter, sexual selection as a law and principal agent ofbeauty in nature is now proved, though, at the same time, several more facts are added to those upon which the counter hypothesis seems based, and which would certainly prove it in Topsy-turvydom. To take these first, the authors of the paper in question have sought to apply to spiders “the hypothesis that the brighter colour of the male is due to his greater activity and vital force.” “Beginning,” they say, “with the most brilliant family—theAttidæ—we find that the females are, with few exceptions, larger, stronger, and more pugnacious than the males. Thus we placed two females ofPhidippus morsitanstogether in a glass jar. No sooner did they observe each other than both prepared for battle. Eyeing each other with a firm glance, they slowly advanced, and in a moment were locked in deadly combat. Within a few seconds the cephalothorax of one was pierced by the fang of the other, and with a convulsive tremor it relaxed its hold and fell dead. We placed together eight pairs in all, and in each instance the fight was short and even to the death. Subsequently we put in a well-developed male, which, though smaller, was compactly built and apparently strong enough to bring the virago to terms, but to our surprise he seemed alarmed and retreated, trying to avoid her. She, however, followed him up and finally killed him.”[132]

So much forPhidippus morsitans. Coming toDendryphantes elegans, the authors, who kept a number together in a large box, “were much struck by the greater quarrelsomeness of the females. They would frequently go out of their way to chase each other, andthey were much more circumspect in approaching each other than were the males.”[133]Again they say, “Valkenaer, Menge, Hentz, and others give numerous instances where the male meets his death through the fierceness of his mate. In fact the danger is so imminent that after a successful courtship it is the habit in several genera (e.g.EpeiraandTegnaria) for the male to retire with precipitation from the web of the female as a reasonable precaution; yet the rule is for the male to be more ‘beautified’ than the female.”[133]

Coming now to the actual courtship of these brilliant spiders, the authors placed pairs of several species in square wooden boxes, having a cloth bottom, on which they could easily move about. One of the species experimented on wasDendryphantes elegansmentioned only a moment ago—such a name is not to be forgotten—whose beauty is thus described: “The male is covered with iridescent scales, his general colour being green. In the female the colouring is dark but iridescent, and in certain lights has lovely rosy tints. In the sunlight both shine with the metallic splendour of humming-birds. The male alone has a superciliary fringe of hairs on either side of his head, his first legs being also larger and more adorned than those of his mate.”[133]

Yet the extra vigour from which this special growth is supposed to have sprung has not, as we shall see, affected his growth in general. “The female is much larger, and her loveliness is accompanied by an extreme irritability of temper, which the male seems to regard as a constant menace to his safety; but his eagerness being greatand his manner devoted and tender, he gradually overcomes her opposition. Her change of mood is only brought about after much patient courting on his part”.[133]And now comes the minutely interesting description of this iridescent,couleur de rosecourtship. “While from three to five inches distant from her he begins to wave his plumy legs in a way that reminds one of a windmill. She eyes him fiercely, and he keeps at the 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 (in insects it would be the antennæ) 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 coloured abdomen, holding it at one time vertically 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,”[133]and so on,

“Till the happy ‘yes’ falters from her mouth,”

almost as exciting, though not quite so detailed, as the climax scene of a latter-day novel.

1. A solitary spider dancing before its mate.

2. A cockroach attacking an astonished scorpion. Its weapons are the spines on its powerful hind legs.

Of the courtship of another species—Habrocestum splendens—we have the following account: “The male, a magnificent fellow when we first caught him, displayed for a long time before the female. He began by advancing a few inches before her, and then backing off again, this being repeated many times. After a while he settled down under a little web in the corner. The female, troubled by this indifferent treatment, advanced towards him; he came out and she fell back. This play was kept up for some time, but at length the male began his courting in earnest. When within a few inches of her he began a rapid dance from side to side, raising the whole body high on the tips of the legs, the first pair being directed forward and the palpi clasped together, with the abdomen turned to one side and lifted up. After a short dance he stood motionless, striking an attitude and remaining quiet for half a minute. Then he turned his back on her, moving irregularly about, with his legs forward and his palpi vibrating. Again he dances sideways before her, strutting and showing off like a peacock, or whirling around and around.”[133]

On such occasions the female would “commonly move nearer to him and appear much excited herself. We at first supposed that this turning around was accidental,but it happened so regularly at a certain stage of the courtship that we concluded it was an important part of the display, serving to better show off his brilliant abdomen.”[133]Of this there can hardly be a doubt, since on every occasion the male spider, whatever his species, assumed such attitudes as displayed his best points to the best advantage—a fact which recalls the following passage in one of Darwin’s letters: “I am very glad to hear of your cases of the two sets ofHesperiadæ(a butterfly), which display their wings differently, according to which surface is coloured. I cannot believe that such display is accidental or purposeless.”

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 sexualselection. The body has been given up, but the spirit, which touches us yet more nearly, is still fiercely defended.

InHasarius 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. Themales 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 theAttidmales, 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 theAttidæ: 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 rufuswas caught once and eaten in an unguarded moment, and whilstPhidippus morsitanswas 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 ofSaitis pulex, a male of which species was introduced into a box already occupied by a female. “Hesaw 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 drawnearer”[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: “Thevittataform, 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 legsin 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. Thenigerform, 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 ifniger, in a large percentage of them, wins the day, choice on the part of the female—the only link in the chain ofevidence 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 matterin which animals participate, has not been sufficiently dwelt upon.

Professor Poulton, in considering this case ofAstra vittatawith 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 thestrongest supportto 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 theAttidæwe 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 theAttidæby 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.”

The process of the narrative having led, in the last chapter or two, to a discussion of some of the ways in which insects become shaped and coloured through natural selection, sexual selection seemed marked out as the subject for this one. The reason why I have filled it with extracts from a certain very interesting paper has been a better one than that of saving myself trouble. That paper—the most important one perhaps that has ever been written on the subject—is a wonderful confirmation of Darwin’s views, but Darwin, as it appears to me, has not benefited by it in the way that he ought to do in thepopular mind. There is no work that I know of, written upon merely popular lines, that brings these facts forward, and yet I feel sure that to large numbers of people, who yet do not care to read books avowedly scientific, they must be extremely interesting, not only in themselves, but as allowing them both to form a judgment on the subject, and on the correctness or otherwise of Darwin’s views—for Darwin is an interesting and picturesque figure far beyond the close borough of science.

Now the general more intelligent public who read, perhaps, widely, but not very deeply or very specially, know that Darwin believed in two forces—natural and sexual selection—by the joint action of which, species, as he held, had been gradually modified and evolved, and they know that the former of these two has been accepted by science, but that to the latter there has been much more opposition, and that it is not—or is not supposed to be—established like the other. Many, perhaps, may have read Dr. Wallace’sDarwinism, a work in which Darwin’s most distinctive and original view—that one whose conception, apparently, he shared with nobody and on which he based much of the argument contained in hisDescent of Man—is considered and rejected in a way which makes the title of the book misleading, surely, if not a somewhat comically ludicrous misnomer. All those who have read it, as well as many who have not, will be interested—they cannot fail to be—in the wonderful record of spider courtships contained in these extracts, and having reflected on them, they will, if I mistake not, be much more impressed with the argumentsforthis part of Darwinism than theywere with those brought against it in the book of that name.

All these latter arguments, by the way—the languor of swallows as against the vitality of parrots, trogons, etc.—were well known to Darwin himself; and as no one was, at the same time, more impartial in considering, and more capable of correctly estimating, facts hostile to his own theories, or which, at first sight, might seem to be so, it may not be out of place to end this chapter with a reference to what he thought of them. This we may gather from a statement contained in a paper—the last, presumably, ever written by him—which was read before the Zoological Society but a few hours before his death, and which is as follows: “I may, perhaps, be here permitted to say that, after having carefully weighed, to the best of my ability, the various arguments which have been advanced against the principle of sexual selection, I remain firmly convinced of its truth.”

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