[152]

Extreme minuteness of male Spiders

Q. Journal of Science

1868. July. p. 429.

[pp. 429-430, refers to Darwin: "Sexes of Sliders. — Mr. Pickard-Cambridge remarks upon the numerical relations between the sexes of spiders. He says that in the extensive group Epeiridæ, comprising several genera, he has never seen an example of the male sex; nor in an examination of the Museums of Vienna, Milan, Berlin, Frankfort, and Leyden, could he meet with a specimen, though females occurred in them all. He supposes that the males of this group are exceedingly small compared to females, and probably overlooked by collectors —and probably they would look like little horny and more or less spiny ticks. In Nephila, which are giants of the spider race, the males are almost unknown, and when known are ridiculously disproportionate in size to the females. Some species of other families also present a striking disproportion in the relative size of the sexes.

The extraordinary sexual history of the spiders may account for this on Mr. Darwin's principle of sexual selection."]