Figure 4 in Stabilizing selection to maintain the two male forms of the jumping spider Maevia inclemens (Araneae: Salticidae: Marpissina), version 2

Figure 4. Four sequential positions of a male (1-4) during the successful courtship of a female Paraphidippus aurantius (Lucas 1833) on a plant in the laboratory. Males were placed on plants with three recently molted females, all from Greenville County, South Carolina. In each case the female stopped moving soon after she sighted the male, and the male advanced to mate successfully when she did not turn to face him as he stepped from side to side. In this example the female stopped moving at a distance of about 10 cm from the approaching male. The subsequent mating included insertion of each pedipalp on the respective side of the epigynum, and occupied more than 20 minutes. P. aurantius males will cohabit with and defend penultimate females (Thurlow 2016), and their large chelicerae are associated with the ritual male-male combat (agonistic behavior) that may ensue. This represents a pattern seen in many other salticids (e.g., Lyssomanes viridis, Tedore & Johnsen 2012, 2013, 2015), in which male-male contests account for most sexual selection. At the other end of the spectrum of sexual selection lie the highly ornamented salticids of the genus Maratus, for which male-male contests are virtually unknown (save one species), and a female may examine the details of male ornamentation up-close before acceptance (Otto & Hill 2021). Most salticids appear to fall somewhere between these two extremes, relying to some extent on both male-male combat and active selection by females.