American spiders and their spinningworkA natural history of the orbweaving spiders of the United States, with special regard to their industry and habits . about one inch in depth and lieight. The top was then carefully overlaid witli a tolerably closely wo\-ensheet of white spinningwork, so that the spider was entirely shut in. Thiscover she fortunately made against the glass side of the jar, and the move-ments of the inmate were thus exposed to view. Shortly after the cavewas covered the spider was seen working upon a circular cushion ofwhite silk, about three-fourths of an inch in diameter,
American spiders and their spinningworkA natural history of the orbweaving spiders of the United States, with special regard to their industry and habits . about one inch in depth and lieight. The top was then carefully overlaid witli a tolerably closely wo\-ensheet of white spinningwork, so that the spider was entirely shut in. Thiscover she fortunately made against the glass side of the jar, and the move-ments of the inmate were thus exposed to view. Shortly after the cavewas covered the spider was seen working upon a circular cushion ofwhite silk, about three-fourths of an inch in diameter, which was si)unupwards in a nearly perpendicular position against the earthen wall ofthe cave. Tlie cushion looked so much like the work of Agalena ntevia,and the whole operations of the Lycosa were so like those of that spiderwhen cocooning, that I was momentarily possessed with the thought thatI had mistaken the identity altogether, and again examined her carefully,only to be sure that she was indeed a Lycosid. How Lycosa fabricates her-rouml cocoon. Proceed. Acad. Xat. Sci., Pliila., ISS4,page 138. •. 144 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. After an absence of a half hour I returned to find that in tlae intervalthe spider had oviposited upon the central part of the cushion, and wasthen engaged in covering the hemispherical egg mass with a silkenenvelope, working like a mason sjareading mortar with a trowel. Unluckily, at this stage of work I had to leave for an imperative en-gagement, and did not see my spider again for an hour and a half, whenI was delighted to find a round silken ball dangling from the°™^°^ apex of her abdomen, lield fast by short threads to the spin-nerets. The cushion, however, had disajspeared. It is not dif-ficult to explain the intervening process. Within this circular cushion theeggs are deposited, after whicli act the spider proceeds to pull the edges ofthe cushion together until the whole is rolled around the egg mass, afterthe fashion
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectspiders, bookyear1890
