. American spiders and their spinning work. A natural history of the orbweaving spiders of the United States, with special regard to their industry and habits. Spiders. COCOON LIFE AND BABYHOOD. 241 On June 11th, one week after the hatching of the young Lycosids, one hundred liad abandoned the maternal percli and were dispersed over tlie inner surface of the jar and U[)on a series of lines stretched from side to side. About half as many more remained upon the motlier's back, but by the 13th, two days thereafter, all had dismounted. In the meantime they had increased in size at least half, appa
. American spiders and their spinning work. A natural history of the orbweaving spiders of the United States, with special regard to their industry and habits. Spiders. COCOON LIFE AND BABYHOOD. 241 On June 11th, one week after the hatching of the young Lycosids, one hundred liad abandoned the maternal percli and were dispersed over tlie inner surface of the jar and U[)on a series of lines stretched from side to side. About half as many more remained upon the motlier's back, but by the 13th, two days thereafter, all had dismounted. In the meantime they had increased in size at least half, apparently without food.' One summer, at the steamboat landing of I^ake Saratoga, New York, between the platform and the logs driven as piles to protect it, I observed a large nest of interlacing lines within which hung a round co- Young coon from half to three-fourths of an inch in diameter. Imme- medes diately beneath the cocoon many young spiders were massed in colony, hanging inverted, in the usual posture, from t^ie crossed lines of the maze. These were the little fellows who had been hatched within the swinging egg bag, and who had doubt- less issued therefrom within the last week or ten days. At least, they were so well grown that they might have been of that age. The cocoon was so evi- dently of the Lycosid charac- ter that I was for a moment perplexed to find it in such a position. But, remembering the habit of Dolomedes, I in- ferred that this may have been the cocoon nest of one of the large Dolomede spiders that frequent the border's of our American lakes and other wa- ters. I captured some of the young spiders, with some diffi- culty however, for they were old and active enough to scamper away upon the least agitation of the snare. An examination showed that they were young Dolomedes, proba- bly Dolomedes tenebrosus, a spider that attains great size inider favor- able circumstances. No doubt, the mother had carried lier cocoon along the shore, hiding among rocks or und
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectspiders, bookyear1889
